A Golden Autumn
by CrayolaMarkers
Summary: It's four months after the horrifying events of Percy's sixteenth birthday, and he's been taken into hiding. The other campers, including Annabeth, have been scattered, left to fend for themselves. How can it get more complicated? They're still in love.
1. Goodbye Summer

**A/N: Hey, y'all, Crayola Markers here. This is the sequel to another fic you guys may have read (A Frosty Winter). The beginning starts out as a little serious, but trust me, not ALL of it will be that dark. I'm not going all Harry-Potter-6-and-7 on you guys!**

**Anyway: if you read the end of A Frosty Winter, the opening flashback scene takes place in late summer of the following year, when Percy is sixteen and Annabeth almost is. Well, what are you doing reading this!? GO READ! :) So we begin...**

_--_

_A siren whined loudly around me. It was one of those noises that gets right in your face, not in the background, because of sheer volume. Though it was past two in the morning, the world was too bright. Helicopters chopped the air above me, their spotlights searching around the camp's fields._

_"Chiron!" I screamed, catching a glimpse of him galloping quickly to the edges of the camp. "Chiron!" _

_He looked at me but didn't stop his sprint to the edge._

_"What are you doing?! People are dying! You have to help!" I cried, though my voice choked. _

_He kept his eyes away but finally yelled a response. "Annabeth, I cannot explain. You and Clarisse must lead the troops," he instructed._

_"But why--" I began, then I saw. A flash of jet-black hair behind him gave him away. "You're taking Percy away!"_

_Percy's left hand was held in Chiron's death-grip, the other in Mr. D's. "Let go of me," he growled, trying to jerk out of their grasp. "DON'T MAKE ME LEAVE."_

_"Annabeth, get back to the field!" Chiron yelled, ignoring him. "We don't have much time."_

_"She's not going back until I'm with her!" Percy shouted as he kicked Chiron's side. Chiron, being immune to such rebellion, only dragged him down the hill and unlocked the car door._

_"Percy, be calm!" Chiron said firmly. "You are much too important to be killed in this invasion!"_

_"So is Annabeth!" he snapped, yanking free of their hold for a split second before they pushed him in the car. _

_"Sorry, but she doesn't have a prophecy about her," Mr. D. said gruffly as he slammed the door shut. "Get a seatbelt on."_

_I pushed him out of the way and reached through the car window. "Don't let them take you away from me!" I shouted as he seized my hand in his._

_"I love you," he yelled. "Don't get hurt!"_

_Tears were streaming down my face, blurring the scene. "No! Let me come with you!"_

_Mr. D slammed on the gas without warning. I ran to keep up, but they accelerated. Soon my hand slipped from his._

_"PERCY!" I cried to the chilled black air. Nobody heard me. It was just me and my scream, echoing through the night like the sirens and helicopters._

--

I sat straight up in my San Francisco bedroom, freezing, eyes burning with the bright light of my familiar dream. It was much too cold for mid-November in California. I threw open the bathroom door and stared at my reflection to confirm what I'd already knew. My lips and fingernails were tinted a pale violet-blue, not a healthy color. My eyes were the same shade of gray, but no spark anymore. They'd definitely lost something since I lost him.

I ran my hands under some warm water, trying to get my nerves under control. Okay, I told myself, be rational. Percy's _probably_ safe right now. Why else would Chiron have instructed that Mr. D drive him away? Besides, it's been more than four months. You need to get over it. Maybe you can drink some herbal tea and get back to bed, and maybe, if you had normal interests like normal people do, you would have a life right now instead of focusing on _him_.

I sighed; this wasn't helping.

_BRRRRRRRING_.

I stared incredulously at the phone. Who on earth was calling me in the middle of the night?

_BRRRRRRRING_.

"Hello?" I asked cautiously. Anybody who calls at this hour had mental problems.

"Annabeth, it's me," Thalia's voice said breathlessly. "Pack your stuff and get over here!"

"What? Thalia?!" I blinked with amazement.

"Yes. _Listen_. Just call a cab, get on the bus, whatever. Go to San Francisco International Airport, check in at Gate 13. Do it as soon as you can."

I shook my head drowsily. "Thalia, you know what time it is?"

"This is serious. Your ticket is paid for, just leave your family a note or something -- you can call them later."

"Three thirty. In the morning."

"Annabeth!"

I slapped myself lightly to wake up. "Let me get this straight: you call me at three thirty in the morning and expect me to drop everything, leave my home, and fly to only you know where for a reason you won't disclose over the phone?"

She paused. "Yeah."

I glared, though of course she couldn't see me. "You're a Hunter. Why do you need me? What for?"

"I don't need you, no offense. I want you to be here, and I'm sure somebody else will, too."

"How sweet," I rolled my eyes. "But as much as I'd like to see you -- seriously -- I'm kind of attatched to my bed here, and my home, and my brothers."

"This doesn't just have to do with me," she said crisply. "It has to do with a friend of ours. Perseus Jackson. Remember him?"

I froze, fully awake now. You read in cheesy books about how the girl's always struck speechless. Well, that's not exactly it. You're not _speechless_, you're also soundless and motionless and thoughtless. You literally lose the ability to think.

Thalia seemed to take my silence as a _yes_. "I'd pack for mild weather," she advised before hanging up.


	2. Fading Leaves

**A/N: Hey! By the way, I love you reviewers. And also, for newcomers, this is the sequel to A Frosty Winter. (Crap, I should've put that in the summary, huh?) Well, back to the story.**

Now, normally I don't think of myself as a reckless person. Adventurous, sure, but I _plan_ things out.

However, when Thalia called me at three thirty in the morning, I didn't really have a choice but to call a taxi and head for San Francisco International._ Why does it always start in an airport_?

"Gate thirteen...gate thirteen..." I muttered as I strode down the moving sidewalk. A few lazy people next to me stood still, letting the floor move them along. But it was still dark outside, and there weren't that many people around. "Where the hell's gate thirteen?!"

My eyes flicked across the gates in front of me. Gate 9...gate 11...there it was.

"Paris?!" I hissed out loud in the line to check-in. Sure enough, there was marquee with DESTINATION: PARIS, FRANCE flashing across it before my eyes. "Oh, thanks, Thalia."

Paris. That was just incredibly random. It didn't occur to me that I could have the wrong gate, because this was just like Thalia: give me meaningless instructions and promise to explain in the end. I sighed as I signed in and received my boarding pass, courtesy of a small company called Hunters, Inc. _You'd better have a good explanation,_ I thought with annoyance as I snatched up the boarding pass and flopped down into a seat._ The only reason I'd come is to see him again_.

I looked bored, I'm sure, while I was sitting there. But I was anything except bored. For example, I was thinking, _Why Europe?_ _And what's the emergency?_

But more truthfully, I was being tortured by little happy remembrances. Grover's reaction to seeing me and Percy together when camp began. Percy's "good morning" kisses that he rarely forgot to give. His insistence that I go with him on his favorite black pegasus, a scary but amazing experience. The time he snuck into the Athena cabin at midnight to calm me down during a thunderstorm, even when I hadn't told him how much they frightened me. How we'd gone down to the shore to talk the day before they took him away.

I yanked my iPod from my backpack and cranked it up as high as it would go to drown out the stupid memories. _Besides_, I forced myself to admit, _Thalia's probably just wanted you to meet her in Paris to tell you Percy's...dead_.

"Now boarding seats ten through thirty," a calm female voice called over the intercom.

I shivered and grabbed my luggage.

--

_"_We have reached our final destination at Paris, France."

"_Nous avons atteint notre destination finale à Paris, France."_

"Thank you for choosing to fly United."

"_Merci du choix Uni."_

I groaned as I woke up slowly. "I don't even speak French," I yawned. "Why me?"

As a cherry on top of this extremely weird morning -- which wasn't even morning anymore, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, thanks to the insanely long flight and time difference -- I couldn't speak the local language. Great.

I unlocked the compartment above my head and was welcomed by a _bonk_ from my bags. "Dumb suitcase," I said, hitching my backpack over my shoulder and dragging my other bag along. I tried to inconspicuously rush to out of the airplane, hoping to see Thalia and question her a bit.

Sure enough...

"_There_ you are," a girl with a crisp black bob and silver jacket said. Thalia wasn't the only one, though: a crowd of maybe fifteen others gathered around her. "We've only been waiting half an hour."

"My flight was on time," I told her, confused.

She waved her hand. "Regardless," she said. "We need to get going. Did you check any bags? No? Good."

"Who are all these people?" I whispered as we started down the escalators, trying not to be rude. "I mean, you didn't exactly give details over the phone."

"Oh, right," she smacked her head. "Okay, the other Hunters: Grace, Elizabeth, Leslie, and Rose," she pointed to each silver-jacketed girl in turn. They looked four years younger than me, about twelve; harmless enough. I smiled and got a smile bxnack from everyone except Rose. "And there are other half-bloods, too," she gestured to the remainder of kids, girls and boys.

"Oh, yeah," I nodded in understanding while we headed out the French airport doors. "We know each other, right?"

Thalia agreed, "Yep. But just so we're clear...this is Amanda," she pointed to a grinning blonde.

"Duh," I laughed. "We're in the same cabin."

"Whatever. That's Sholeh," Thalia showed me a pretty girl with blue eyes I'd probably seen before.

"Keira," she pointed to a friendly-looking redhead.

"Ariel," a girl with a sleek black ponytail.

"Meridith," a brunette with a sweet smile.

"Allegra, Miranda, Drake, Jon, Candy," she showed me each one in turn. I hoped I could remember them all.

"Nice to see you guys again," I tried to force a smile. It didn't help, obviously. Our camp, our only haven, was _dead_. Of course we couldn't be all right.

I threw my bags on a bench while Thalia turned to Candy. "Hey, could you guys pick up the car, _s'il vouz plet_?" she asked, dropping her a set of keys. "We'll stay right here."

"No problem," Candy said. "_Allons-y_, guys, bring your bags." She jingled the keys in her hands and set off toward the parking lot, the other half-bloods in tow.

Thalia waited until they were safely out of sight to turn to me again. "Ah, French. So fun to speak."

"I have a feeling I won't be doing much of that," I grumbled.

She laughed quietly. "Annabeth," she began seriously. "There's still one more person I have to introduce."

My heart skipped a beat. _Where is he_, I tried to say, but my vocal chords weren't cooperating.

She turned her head so she could see around the corner. "Hey, Seaweed Brain," she called softly. "Guess who's here?"

I heard the soft sound of quick footsteps before I saw the most wonderful sight I'd ever seen.

"Oh, my _gods_, Percy!" I laugh-cried as I ran to him.

He was a little taller. His black hair had grown out a little too long, his skin a little too tan, but he looked absolutely perfect to me. I had no idea how he could get so much older in only a little time. The best part about seeing him again, aside from the assurance that he was alive -- and he was alive! Praise God! -- was his smile. I knew I looked just as crazily happy right then.

He threw his arms around me and kissed me longer than Thalia probably could stand.

"I've...missed..you," he said, hugging me way too tight. I didn't mind, though, because I was hugging him just as fiercely. His circulation wouldn't thank me for that. "I've missed you so much."

I breathed in his scent, salty and familiar. "I've missed you too," I whispered. "So don't _ever _leave me like that again!"

"It's only been, what, three months?" Thalia's voice drifted from behind us.

"Four," we both corrected at the same time.

He looked down at me with a dumb smile. "C'mon," he said. "We're going to a cafe. Even if Thalia won't tell you, I'll explain everything."


	3. Turning Red

**A/N: Hey y'all! About the names of the half-bloods being other people's OC's: I thought that readers, who'd read their amazingly amazing cool stories, would be all, "Hey, cool, there's Sholeh from Living from Dream to Dream!" or "Hey, that's Ariel from Ariel's Summer!" I love it when stories intertwine like that. But**

**it looks like some people think that's stupid :) It's okay...I'll take out their names and their subplots from this fic if you guys want. **

Newsflash: it is roughly as difficult to get an outdoor café table in Paris as it is to win the lottery. Twice.

The only redeeming quality was the café's drinks...some minty syrup mixed with Seven-Up, it tasted absolutely delicious.

"Okay," I said once we'd finally gotten our table. Some of the other half-bloods had gone to another table, while a couple, like Ariel, Meridith, and a few others, had stayed with us. "What's the deal?"

Thalia looked like she was about to speak, but Percy began first.

"Everybody was trying to make at their own place," he started. "Especially since the camp was...attacked, monsters have been a huge problem."

"Especially around the stables," grumbled Ariel.

"And the beach," Meridith said.

I nodded grimly. "And San Francisco. Go on."

"They hid me in a mid-Olympic state for four months," he said, wincing. "It's like...not as high as Olympus, but enough to keep away from Kronos. To keep their precious _prophecy_ safe."

_That explains the tan_, I thought.

"It's pretty easy to eavesdrop on the gods from there, even though it's really far down, because of acoustics in the clouds. Anyway, I kept hearing them talk about Callistan energy."

"Callistan energy?" I echoed.

"I still don't know what it is, but I had a notebook in my backpack. I took a ton of notes," he brought out a cheap spiral pad, turned black with scrawled handwriting.

"Wow," I said, genuinely impressed.

He laughed. "Yeah, it's probably more notes than I've ever taken in my life. So they start talking about this Callistan energy stuff, and they mention Europe. What I gathered was that they'd hidden less than ten pieces of it in all the major landmarks, one in each of a few countries, like a couple hundred years ago. The point is, Kronos' army has figured this out."

"What would happen if they got the Callistan energy?" I asked anxiously.

He looked down at his napkin.

"They'd be strong enough to kill us all," Thalia murmured. "That's why we're here."

I took a sip of my mint Diablo and thought about this. "We have to get the Callistan energy pieces, then," I looked at the other half-bloods and Hunters. "Quickly. Before Kronos gets here."

"They're already on their way," Thalia explained.

"_What?!_"

"Percy just escaped from mid-Olympia. Once they found out, they came for France."

I growled angrily. "Fine. Then let's get going to the Eiffel Tower, or whatever."

"It could be anywhere, though," Drake piped up. "The Louvre, the Arche de la Defense..."

"The gods aren't that interested in French culture nowadays," Meridith crossed her arms. "I'm betting the Callistan energy will be in the Eiffel Tower."

"Well, let's go, then!" I folded my napkin and stood up.

Thalia tugged me down. "I'm telling you, _wait_." she pointed to everybody else. "Do they look worried? It's because...well, tell her, Percy."

"You can only retrieve the energy pieces at night," he explained. "Midnight. Apollo probably had something to do with that."

"Hey!" Meridith nudged his arm good-naturedly. "That's my _dad_."

"I know, I know. But it won't be a problem, I hope," he glanced at me. "Can you wait until midnight?"

I looked from face to face around the table and shrugged. "I guess so," then a grin spread across my face. "So who wants to go sight-seeing?"


	4. A Fallen Leaf

**A/N: This note is for fluff-lovers. I am a fluff lover. I won't deny it. Why the note, then? Because, after reading this chapter, you have every right to hate me. I would hate me. If this was Rick Riordan, which it is NOT, obviously, I would be fuming at him (also because his writing proficiency had gone waaaaaay down if he had written this chapter :D). Whatever. Trust me on this one. :)**

My head rested snugly on Percy's shoulder, both my arms twisted loosely around one of his. Does this sound overly cute? Well, it wasn't, because I was just so darned happy to see him.

We were walking like this down the Champs d'Élysées, which I'd only heard of because it led to an architectural wonder (the Arc de Triomphe). Apparently it also held shopping, but fashion that _haute_ didn't really interest me. Too flouncy.

"Paris holds the key to your heart," I murmured as I watched the autumn sunlight fade to a soft twlight. "And all of Paris plays a part..."

He didn't even smack me for being so cheesy, and starting singing along instead. "Just waltz two-by-two down what we call _la rue_--"

"Those aren't the words," I teased him.

Percy looked taken aback. "Yes, they are!"

"No," I said. "It's _stroll_ two-by-two, Seaweed Brain."

"Whatever," he said, stopping and taking hold of my shoulders to kiss me on the lips. I sort of giggled and kissed him back. Geez. Since when do I giggle?

"What lovebirds," I joked, clasping my hands around his neck.

He groaned and kissed my forehead. "Idiotic lovebirds."

We laughed together and headed for the River Seine, which took a while on foot but was worth it. Percy and I ran across the longest bridge we could find, and I found an absolutely amazing sight.

"Oh, look," I pointed out with a rush of excitement at the flying buttresses. "It's beautiful! Notre Dame da Paris!"

"_De_ Paris," he corrected with a self-satisfied air.

I turned to his smirking face. "Shut up," I told him, leaning in for another smooch.

I'll be honest. Right after Notre Dame and the Louvre, my favorite part of France is the French kissing.

"I can't do this," Percy broke away after probably five or ten minutes of kissing. "I...I'm sorry."

My throat tightened unexpectedly with his words. "Wait, what? Why not?"

He looked away, like he was intensely studying the ducks. "Just...trust me. I'm not supposed to--"

"Supposed to what?" I tried to sound calm, but my voice cracked anyway. Stupid voice.

But what he meant had already clicked in my mind.

"They don't want us to be together, do they?" I almost whispered, not because I wanted to whisper, but because it was easier than speaking at full volume. He knew who I meant by _they_. "That's it, right?"

He stared harder at the ducks.

"Percy!"

"Look, I don't want them messing around in our lives, either!" he turned to me. Apparently the ducks weren't so interesting anymore. "But you know your mom and my dad. They hate each other."

I tried to get a word in. "Listen to--"

"Not dislike, not 'they don't get along,'" he fumed. "_Hate_. They gave me the rest of today to break up with you before they'd take away their protection."

I stepped back like I'd just been punched. Poseidon's protection, which would ensure none of us would drown and would get us across the water more quickly, was vital for this quest. And during any battles -- or whenever we needed to think quickly -- we needed my mother Athena's help, too.

But we couldn't break up. That wasn't fair.

"That's not fair," I said hoarsely.

"Nothing's fair," he said bitterly. "Is it fair that we have to be half-bloods and fight monsters at least once a week? Is it fair that we had to get tangled up in our parent's war? No! It's not!"

"We want to fight for the gods," I said, trying not to get too loud. The French people left us alone, but some tourists were staring. "We want to help them."

He looked like he was about to shout again, but I think he saw the stare-ers and contained himself. "I know," he muttered. "We do. But it's the worst feeling in the world, that just when I found you..." he reached a hand up to touch my cheek. "I have to lose you again."

I looked down so he wouldn't see my eyes shining with tears. "So it's over, huh." It wasn't a question.

I wanted for him to tell me I was wrong; ideally, he would say something like_ ha, you fell for it, Wise Girl!_ But something along the lines of _no, we'll tell them we can't be apart, we'll figure something out_ would have been acceptable too.

But all he said was, "Yeah. It's over." He looked in my eyes, even though I was trying hard not to look at him. Gazing at our reflections in the river, I couldn't decide which of us looked more heartbroken.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"That's not going to change their minds," I said quietly, walking away so his hand slipped off my face. The twilight had vanished, replaced by cold black skies. No stars. Paris was too bright for stars. I walked faster and faster away from him until I was running.

"Why did you have to do this?" I muttered under my breath. "Why, huh? Did you deliberately _try_ to make me sad?" I trembled, but I soon realized it wasn't with sorrow. No, it wasn't sorrow -- this was anger. I was _mad_. "Well, it didn't work," I hissed at the imaginary Percy. "You just lost your little game. I hate you. I hate you, Percy. Being broken up isn't going to be hard, it's going to be _easy_. This is going to be the easiest thing in my life."

I laughed coldly, even though a little part of me said that I didn't mean what I was saying. This was better than being some weepy girl and acting all sad about being dumped. I was better off alone in the first place. But even with this knowledge, my dumb, naive song I'd hummed less than an hour ago came back to haunt me.

_Come dance through the night_

_And forget all your woes_

_The City of Light_

_Where a rose is a rose_

_And no one ever knows_

_What will start_

_Paris holds the key...to her heart._

"I _am_ better off alone," I repeated out loud. My eyes flew to the Eiffel Tower, where I knew Thalia, the Hunters, and the other half-bloods were waiting for midnight. I had to join them soon. "I don't need anybody but me."

But somehow, I thought I still did.


	5. Starry Night in Paris

**A/N: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever. Here's why: one, I've got sports and school and friends. Busy busy busy. Two, I'll be honest, I had no muse for this chapter at all for a while. I was like, okay, they broke up, now what?! WHAT NOW?! Then it was like Annabeth and Percy came and whacked me in the head and said, "duh, this is what happens, idiot," so I went and wrote it out. :)  
**

"You certainly took your time," sniffed Thalia, throwing me a bow and arrow once I'd finally trekked up the stairs and elevators to the top of the Tour d'Eiffel. The black sky seemed more frightening, more close up on the balcony. "Be prepared. We expect Luke and his allies to come around eleven."

I stared blankly at the weapon in my hand. "I don't do archery."

"Tough," said Grace, but not unkindly. "We all have to learn. You'll pick it up eventually."

I sighed, knowing I would _not _pick it up eventually. "Fine...where's the energy piece going to be?"

"That's the only easy part," a hunter named Elizabeth laughed. "The middle of this top balcony. How obvious can they get?"

It was true. A rather blatant rectangular seam marked where _something_ was hidden in the floor, smack dab in the middle of the lobby. The gods of creativity definitely had nothing to do with hiding this energy.

"So who _did_ create this Callistan energy stuff, anyway?" I asked.

"That would be Callisto," Elizabeth said. "It's a beautiful story..."

I looked at my cell phone. "We've got time."

Elizabeth's eyes shone. "Well, Callisto was one of the Hunt, you see -- excellent, really. Artemis loved her. Except, she was quite pretty--"

"Uh-oh."

"You can see where this is going. Zeus took a liking to her, and broke her vow of chastity to Artemis by force," Elizabeth heaved a great sigh. "You might call it rape.

"In any case, Callisto was ashamed, though it wasn't her fault. She was with child, and Artemis isn't stupid. She quickly figured out that Callisto had broke her vow and banished her. Hera, jealous as she is..."

Thunder crashed angrily from the sky above. We both looked up.

"Excuse me, Lady Hera," Elizabeth said sarcastically. "Anyway, Hera transformed Callisto into a bear, a grizzly bear, after she'd given birth to her baby. It was a son named Arcus. Hermes felt sorry for Callisto, so he took her baby for his own mom Maia to raise."

"That _is_ a sweet story," I forced myself to say. Sweet was anathema to me now: only a few hours ago I'd had no problem with "sweet". By this time I squirmed when I heard sweetness.

"I'm not finished," she said. "Arcus, the boy, grew into an amazing hunter. But he accidently speared his own mother, a bear, and the other bears hunted him down to kill him." She sighed. "Zeus took pity on his son and Callisto. He changed them into stars, forever aglow in the heavens."

I turned my head skyward, where the deep blackness of the sky covered everything and only a handful of stars were even visible. "I guess we can't see them now."

"Oh, of course you can," Elizabeth smiled. "Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The bears. Can't you see?"

She pointed at the big and little dipper.

I opened my mouth to speak, but she swiveled around much too fast. "We've got company," she murmured, eyes flicking around the city below us.

I had no idea what she was talking about, but Thalia apparently did. "It's 11:56," she shouted to everybody. "Elizabeth, Rose -- wait for the energy. Everybody else, on defense!"

All the half-bloods and Hunters except those two rushed to the edge of the tower. Even with my limited half-human eyesight, I could see a group of specks in the distance, heading toward us.

"Luke," a male voice growled beside me.

Reflexively, I turned to see who it was. "_You_," I said to Percy. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm still part of this team, remember?" he said, deliberately looking away. "You don't have to like me, Annabeth. Just work with me here."

_ZZZZZING_! An arrow whizzed past me, grazing the side of my ear until it stung.

"Oh, _crap_," I hissed, my hand flying to where the arrow had hit. Sure enough, my fingers came back stained with blood. "Well, it's definitely them. Can we fire now, Thalia?!"

Instead of answering, she aimed and shot an arrow crisply through the air. A second later, one of the specks disappeared.

"Nice hit," I mumbled.

"Go on, shoot!" she commanded, stringing her bow once more.

I clumsily took one of my arrows and tried putting the string between the notch. I didn't even know where to start.

"You do it like this," Percy said, his arms coming around me to guide my hands into shooting correctly.

I shoved him off. "Since when is archery your strong suit?" I snapped.

"What can I do to make you not mad at me?" he cried exasperatedly. "Are you always going to be like this?"

"Duck!"

"What?"

"_DUCK!" _I yelled, tugging him down.

A flaming arrow swooshed above us, right where Percy's heart had been.

He looked at me in surprise. "Uh, thanks?" he smiled, aiming and shooting an arrow through the banister. "Does this mean you forgive me?"

"No," I told him. "I'm incredibly, terribly, really, really mad at you right now and never want to talk to you. But I'm not going to let you _die_, Seaweed Brain."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Guys!" Elizabeth called behind us. "The energy!"

In her hands, a star rested. That's really what it was: a star, pure and white and glowing. Little wisps of white curled around its sparkling center. It was the most beautiful thing I'd really ever seen.

"Let's move, then," Thalia agreed after hitting one more monster with her silver arrow. "Down the elevator, everybody!"

We sprinted into the elevator, Thalia holding Aegis up to shield us from incoming arrows. I banged Rez-de-Chaussee button incessently, trying to get the doors to close faster.

Eventually, the doors clanged shut and we began to speed down the Eiffel Tower. Thalia, having taken the energy star from Elizabeth, breathed out loudly and turned to Percy and me. "So," she started, looking at both of us suspiciously. "What happened to the lovebirds?"


	6. Fall Carpool

**A/N: Hey! Evil me is back, and here's why: I can't guarantee our favorite ex-couple will end up together like all the other fanfics make them. I'm not just saying that to get readers. I think they could, but anything's possible. **

**On that happy note, don't know you want to know what they're going to tell Thalia? Yes? WELL, START READING THEN!**

I pointed at Percy, trying to look like I couldn't care less. "Ask him," I supplied. "He seems to know everything nowadays."

"This coming from Wise Girl," he rolled his eyes.

She held the energy out of the way and shook her head. "Wait, wait, wait, wait -- did you guys break up?"

"Depends what you define as 'breaking up,'" I muttered. "Percy..."

"Maybe I should've broken up with you _anyway_, if I'd known you could act like this!" he said icily.

I gaped at him. "_What_?"

Thalia gave up. "I'm lost."

"He says that our parents refused to help us," I crossed my arms. "Unless he...quit...you know. Apparently, Athena and Poseidon didn't even like us being friends, much less boyfriend and girlfriend."

"_And Poseidon_?" echoed Percy. "Uh, last time I checked, _I_ didn't have the control-freak parent."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Are you calling my mom a control-freak?"

"All I'm saying is Poseidon's a lot more easy going about this stuff."

I threw up my hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry about your breaking up," Thalia said, putting her arms around us. "But could you _please_ just try to get along?"

Percy and I remained silent.

"You were friends before this," she said sternly. "And you can be friends after. Capisce?"

We reluctantly nodded. But on the word _capisce_, which sounded like kapeesh, I gave her a suspicious look. "Any particular reason why you're speaking in Italian?"

She laughed. "Not right now. We're heading to Germany first."

I looked sadly over my shoulder as we left the elevator. "Au revoir, Paris," I sighed.

"It's not so bad," she said. "We might come back here to fly back home, anyway. The flight's cheaper." She dragged us to a cute, bubbly, itsy-bitsy car and dropped the star in the trunk. "I know it's tiny -- it's a Smart Car -- but we'll have to squish. Hunters, can you all walk to the train station?"

"Yeah," the other girls nodded glumly.

"All right," Thalia smiled, turning to me. "You can drive," she tossed me some keys. "I don't trust your...um, ex."

"Thanks," I took the keys and slid into the driver's seat. "How many of us are there, then? Five...seven...nine. Wow. We _are_ going to have to squish."

"I hate Smart Cars," Drake muttered.

"Second that," Ariel supplied.

"Get over it," said Jon. "We're going to have to deal."

Everybody tumbled into the car, double- and triple-buckling like crazy. Other people sat in people's laps. But I, as the driver, had my seat completely to myself.

Well, kind of.

"Hi," Percy muttered as he nearly fell into my seat. "Sorry. Meridith pushed me."

I exhaled and gave him a look, like, _really, Percy?_

"Hey," he said, softer. "You're still wearing the necklace I got you." He reached for my collarbone and picked up the glittering silver owl with a smile.

I swatted his hand away. "Well, am I still allowed to _wear_ it?"

"Duh," he said. "We're friends. It's a friendship necklace as far as our parents know."

I rolled my eyes. Friendship necklace? What kind of friend gives their friend a necklace under the mistletoe on Christmas, complete with a thank-you kiss?

Friends with benefits? Uh, no.

He picked up on my sarcasm. "You're rolling your eyes at me again."

"Seaweed Brain," I grinned at him as I started the ignition. Driving, something I'd learned to love, made me feel older, weirder. It was strange. "I've been doing that for four years."

We laughed, kind of sadly, as we drove to the train that would take us to Germany. "This is going to be hard for me," I whispered to him after a while. I didn't want all the other half-bloods to hear.

"What is?" he asked.

I gave him a look. "You know what. It's like you're...right there...and I can't be with you still. I miss you and you're three feet away from me."

He looked at me with a pained expression and mumbled something I couldn't hear. Thunder struck the instant he did. "What?"

"I said something I probably shouldn't have about Aphrodite," he admitted.

I gripped the steering wheel more tightly. "Aphrodite, huh."

"She met with me back in eighth grade. She said she was going to make things _interesting_ for me in the romance department."

"I don't like interesting. Interesting sucks."

"She doesn't think so," Percy snorted. "That probably explains Calypso and Rachel, anyway. Complicated. That's her specialty--" his voice broke off beside me. "Left!"

"Huh?" I asked, trying to keep my eyes on the road.

"Go left! You'll miss the exit!"

I swerved left as quickly as I could and held my breath. "Is this right?"

"Yeah," he relaxed a little. "We should be headed for Berlin in no time."

My eyes went a little dreamy as I thought about what to do, romance-wise. "I suppose I should take Drake up on his offer, then."

Percy nearly shot out of the Smart Car. "_What?!_"

"He said we could go see a movie and get dinner sometime," I explained quickly. "Nothing big."

"When did he ask you out?!"

"It was before last winter, idiot," I snapped. "He's more chivalrous that that. And keep it down, he's in the backseat!"

"The car's loud," Percy said. "And why...what do you see in him, huh?"

"He's cute, nice, and won't dump me because his parent told him to," I said frostily. "That sounds about right in my book."

"You're impossible," he said.

"And you're a moron," I replied.

"I'm not rebounding an hour after I broke up!"

"First of all, it's been more than an hour," I told him. "Second, I'm _not_ rebounding, I'm _considering_. Third, what business is it of yours?"

He looked like he was going to argue, but something made him stop. "You're...right."

I must have looked shocked. He picked up the owl of my necklace and kept talking. "It isn't my business. I guess I just wish it was."

I pulled the car into the train station, my eyes burning a little. "I wish it was, too."


	7. Not Exactly a Back to School Party

**A/N: SORRY! You know what happened: school, sports, friends, and Ike. My computer was dead for a pretty long time. Again...SORRY!!**

"Ha! Gotcha!" Percy said triumphantly as he wrenched Callisto's star from the remains of the Berlin wall the following midnight. "Two down, three to go."

"There's five?" I asked drowsily. The whole staying-up-past-twelve-every-night thing wasn't going so smoothly with me.

"Five little star things," he patted the energy affectionately. "Häagen Dazs, Germany!"

"What was _that_?" I raised an eyebrow.

"It's 'goodbye' in German," he informed me.

I snorted. "Uh, that's _Auf Weidershen. _Häagen-Dazs is ice cream."

"Whatever!" he rolled his eyes. "I take Spanish, not German."

I stared at him. "Your head is full of kelp."

"I haven't heard that one since you thought I drooled in my sleep."

"Percy," I sighed. "I still think you drool in your sleep."

"How would you know?" he said suspiciously. I never got to answer, though, because a phone started buzzing.

I turned my head toward the sound."Is that yours?"

"Yeah...it's--" he stopped and stared at the phone. "Huh." Silently he flipped open the phone. "Hello?" Pause. "Hey, Rachel!"

"Rachel?!" I repeated. As in, _Rachel Elizabeth Dare_, the weird, rich, artsy redhead who'd kissed him last winter for no apparent reason?

"You've got to be kidding me," he laughed. "Berlin? Yeah! Us too!"

I groaned. No way.

"So that's why? You saw monsters? Oh, great...yeah, we'll be here for another hour or two," he nodded while he talked. "Clubbing? What? _Oh_. Like a date?"

I glared at him with full intensity. "Now who's rebounding?"

He pretended not to hear me. "Um, can I take a friend?" Pause. "Yeah, maybe her. Is that okay?"

I could hear Rachel's sigh even though I was standing far away from his phone.

"Oh, a double date, sure. She's got someone...great. I'll see you there!" He snapped his phone shut quietly and looked at me pleadingly. "Annabeth..."

"No." I said firmly.

"You don't even know what I was going to ask!" he exclaimed.

"Yes. You want me to double-date with Drake so I can watch Rachel Elizabeth Dare be her snippy, sarcastic, richy-art-girl self while she hits on you," I shook my head. "Sorry, but I'm not interested."

"She's not that bad."

I huffed. Even if it was true, I didn't want Percy to have a girlfriend.

"_Please_, Annabeth?" he begged. "I already said I'd go, and I'm going to look like an idiot if I don't."

"Whose problem is that?" I asked.

"Look," he said. "This will get the gods off our case. It'll prove we're not, um, going out anymore. Then things will get back to normal. That's what we want, right?"

I folded my arms and let out a huge sigh. "_Fine_. But if she starts hanging onto you and hugging and stuff, I'm leaving."

--

"Percy, come _on._ You're in Europe now, you can drink at sixteen!" laughed Rachel as she hung on to his shoulder. The dark Club Uropa, where the four of us had found a table, was mostly inhabited by rich twenty-somethings. Socialites. Crazy people. Disco-dancing Germans.

"Thanks, but I'm not really thirsty," Percy said, smiling nervously.

Rachel shrugged and took a sip of her fruity little whatever. "Well, you won't get in trouble. My dad owns all Club Uropas, in fact, so drinks are on us."

I snorted. If she kept trying to prod him into doing something illegal, I might have to take a shot myself. "What kind of music is this?" I asked, trying to be heard over the blaring, techno-ish beat.

"Europop," she told me, as if I'd asked what color the sky was. "You've never heard it?"

"No," I said. Europop? What on earth?

"But hey, good idea, Annabeth," she turned to Percy, setting down her drink and holding out a hand. "You want to dance?"

Percy looked at me for a split second. "Oh. Uh, okay."

They took off to the dance floor, leaving me and Drake alone. I sighed. "Sorry to drag you into this, Drake."

"It's no problem," he shrugged, though he looked as bored as I was. "You're doing him a big favor."

"I guess," I said, my gaze still locked on Rachel and Percy. "They look pretty ridiculous, huh?"

"Yeah," Drake agreed. "Don't tell him this, but Percy can't really dance."

"I know!"

We shared a laugh before things got serious again. "You still miss Sarah, don't you?" I asked. Drake's longtime girlfriend, Sarah, had died last summer. It was a little secret I'd kept from Percy: Drake had asked me to a movie as _friends_ instead of romantically.

"I do," he said sadly. "Every day."

"I'm sorry," I looked at him expectantly. "You think I'll miss him as bad?"

"Percy?" Drake looked confused. "He's not dead yet, is he?"

"He might as well be," I gestured to the Percy-Rachel duo.

Drake stirred his nonalchoholic beverage. "Well, how much do you love him?"

"A lot," I admitted.

"Enough to let him go?" he asked.

I thought about this for a minute. "Yeah," I said, surprising even myself. "I think so. If it makes him happy...well, I wouldn't really be excited, but I'd want him to be with Rachel. Even though I'd miss him." I hated myself for saying the words. They felt fake coming out of my mouth, because of _course_ I didn't want Percy to get together with Rachel. I'd rather be shot in the face, or preferably, have her shot in the face. It made me want to scream.

But the part about him being happy...yeah, I guess that was true.

"You need a tissue?"

"What?" I wiped the back of my hand against my eye; I guess I _had_ been crying a little. "I'm turning into a sissy!"

"No, you're not," he handed me a tissue.

"I am," I wiped my eyes clean and tossed away the tissue before anyone could see. "It's all Percy's fault. He's made me into a big mushy mess. If he'd kept his stupid seaweed-brained mouth shut and hadn't kissed me, this would all be fine!"

Drake laughed while I narrowed my eyes. "It's not funny!" I cried.

"Yeah, it is," he told me. "Look what I have."

He held up a glittering set of car keys, flickering rainbow colors from the disco lights.

"Are those--"

"Yes," he nodded. "Rachel's car keys."

I must have looked a little devilish.

"Now, Annabeth," he talked to me sternly. "Are you going to take the moral road and let Percy be happy with Rachel...or are you going to take her keys and mess with her dashboard wiring like a child of Hermes?"

I looked longingly at the keys. "Can I do both?"

He tossed them to me and smiled. "Go get 'em."

Swiping the keys, I hurried for the nearest exit of the club to look for Rachel's silver BMW. But only a few steps away from the table, I saw Rachel leaning toward Percy -- not a kiss, but a whisper. She was whispering something secret to him.

I know I'd said that I'd forgiven her, sort of...but she could still annoy me, right?

I turned on my heel to face Drake. "Thank you," I piped, pecking him on the cheek and running for Rachel's car.


	8. Here I Go Again

**A/N: Hey! A contest to see who can guess which song is being played at the end of the chapter. I'll send the pretty picture for the next chapter first to whoever guesses it if they want. And yes! The last chapter did remind me a bit of "Before He Cheats," but I didn't realize it until after I'd written it.**

I was curled up against the train's red velvet interior with a book about the importance of banisters in architecture when Percy straggled in.

"Look who's finally here," I observed wryly as he rolled his eyes. "Did Rachel decide to give you matching lipstick with her? Being so artistic, and all that?"

"She might have tried," he admitted, stuffing his coat beneath the seat and sitting down next to me. His fingers brushed my fingers, and his were much warmer. "But only once."

I raised my eyebrows. "She gave up kind of easily."

"No, I just told her I wasn't _really_ going to go out with her," he said, looking out the window. Geez, his hair, coal-black and messy, had really grown out. I'd tell him to get a haircut except I kind of liked it how it was.

Beep! Beep! Red alert! Friends do not stare at other friends' hair that way!

Percy's voice brought be back down to earth. "Plus she had to go outside. Somebody said her car alarm went off?"

I suddenly became immersed in my reading. "Hm," I said indifferently.

"Yeah," he continued. "Only someone with her keys could've done it, unless they were really good at breaking into expensive cars. I told her whoever mixed up her windshield wipers and her radio was probably just some jealous girl..."

"I am not jealous!" I snapped, slamming my book shut.

"_Oh_," he acted fake-astonished. "That was _you_ who messed with her car?"

"Shut up," I mumbled.

This cracked him up. "You really hate her, don't you? For no reason!"

"Oh, just _please _shut up!" I grabbed my book and didn't look at him. "And it's not for no reason," I added under my breath.

He laughed again.

"How can you think this is funny?" I asked, looking him over. "Even if Athena would allow it, I wouldn't go out with you again."

"Well, I would," said Percy in a low voice.

"You would go out with yourself again?" I repeated.

He yanked Riptide, in ballpoint-pen form, from his pocket and turned it carefully in his hands. "You know what I mean," he said. "_You_, okay? I'd go out with _you _again if Athena and my dad would allow it."

My heart rose a couple of inches before I pushed it back down again. Bad Annabeth. "You're coming dangerously close to the line," I warned him.

"I'm starting not to care," he said breezily, continuing to eye his pen.

I rolled my eyes and curled toward the window. "Where are we going?"

"Italy, I think," Percy said. "_Italia_."

I looked at him, astonished. "Wow," I nodded. "You said it right."

His shoulders slump. "You always act so surprised."

"That's because you can't pronounce anything that isn't English and under three syllables," I explained, grabbing a pillow. "G'night."

"Night," he sighed, turning off the light for me. But he didn't go away.

"Um, I'm trying to _sleep_," I prodded. "And you're kind of freaking me out."

He tapped me with Riptide in pen form. "No, I'm not," he said, shaking his head.

"Yes, you are," I insisted, though I was lying. Percy had a better memory than I thought, if he really remembered that I liked having him around before I went to sleep. "You look like a...rapist or something!"

"No, I don't," Percy snorted.

I pretended to sigh. "_Fine_," I conceded. "I'll let you stay until I fall asleep, if you want."

He shrugged, stuffed Riptide in his pocket, and started to head out of the train cabin.

"Hey!" I tugged his shirt back. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I thought didn't want me here," he said, poorly hiding his smile.

I yawned and squeezed my pillow, already drifting off to sleep as he closed the door and sat back down. "I lied," I mumbled.

--

"Annabeth!" Ariel cried, yanking me into a glassy, saffron-yellow store called _Cira_. "We, uh, haven't been in this one yet."

I wrenched out of her grip. "Yes, we _have_."

In fact, we'd been in twice. For reasons I can't imagine, Thalia had ordered us to go around Rome, doing whatever we wanted, except following her and Percy. I wanted to see the Colliseum and museums about the Roman Senate; Ariel and everybody else suggested we shop around the fashion-gifted city and see what we could find.

Majority rules, I guess.

"Why can't I just go with Percy?" I muttered, flicking through racks of skinny jeans without much interest.

Ariel and Meridith exchanged looks. "Uh, here, try this on," Meridith hurriedly threw a sparkling blue dress at me.

"Ouch," I yanked the dress out of my hair. "You didn't answer my question!"

"He's busy," Ariel explained. "Very busy."

Meridith pointed to the dressing room. "And quit asking questions, or you'll have to wear a potato sack tonight, and that _won't _be our fault."

"Tonight?" I eyed them carefully. "What are we doing tonight that would require a dress?"

Ariel stepped on Meridith's toe. "Ow," she hissed.

"It's nothing, really," Ariel finally said. "There's just this real old-fashioned party tonight, very Italian, very romantic, et ceterah."

"Party?" I spat, saying it more or less the same way I'd say _Gates of Hades._

"Yes, a party. And you can't keep wearing that everywhere."

I blinked at my orange t-shirt and old, holey jeans. "Um..."

"Try on this one, while you're at it," Keira said, tossing me a few more gowns.

"NO! I am _not_ going through with this!" I dug my way out of a strapless pink thing. "I will go to the party. I will pretend to shop with you. But I _won't _buy a dress."

"Of course you won't," Sholeh agreed. "I'll buy it."

She tugged something over my head. "This will do," she nodded, throwing the silky garment to the cashier.

The time was later than I thought. They dragged me to the car we'd rented -- another annoyingly small European SmartCar -- and forced me into the dress.

Within an hour, we screeched to a stop in front of a beautiful Italian villa.

It must have been nearly twilight, since the sunlight tinted everything golden. Cardinal red flowers bloomed from the rich earth like little paintpots. The sea, wild and frothy, tossed and turned beyond the nearby cliffs. The villa itself was busy and bustling with European teenagers, and it seemed more like an outdoor ballroom made of stucco, marble, and limestone.

"Is this really necessary?" I growled.

"No," Meridith said. "Not to find the Callistan energy in the Colliseum. But there's this weird thing teenagers like to do called _having fun_ that we thought we'd try."

"Thalia and Percy would never agree to this," I said suspiciously. "What are they doing right now?"

The gods obviously have a sense of humor, because just then, a jet-black Vanquish swerved in next to us. A slim girl in an icy blue dress shook her hair out of her face and motioned for whoever was riding with her to get out. A guy wearing a black blazer over a t-shirt stepped out of the car and...oh, crap.

"Oh, crap," I repeated out loud.

"You could at least say hi," Allegra advised me.

"Hey, guys," the girl in the icy blue dress -- Thalia -- called. "We have a long time, by the way. It's only seven thirty."

"So, is he your date?" I asked Thalia, pointing to Percy.

"Don't be an idiot," she said. "Huntress, remember?"

"Besides, I'm going to be dancing with Annabeth," Percy shrugged and looked at me. "Okay by you?"

I looked at him like he was crazy, which he was. "_Percy?_"

"What did I do?!" he demanded.

I looked him dead in the eye and started counting off reasons on my fingers. "Poseidon, Athena, prohibition, any of this ringing a bell?"

He rolled his eyes. "Can we please forget about that for one night?"

He held out his hand.

I huffed angrily, but took his hand anyway. "You are _such_ a Seaweed Brain," I mumbled.

"And you're such a Wise Girl," he shot back. "We still put up with _you_."

We ventured into the maze of people, just one more couple among what seemed like a billion others.

"They can see us, you know," I told him under my breath. "Our parents. If they're not watching, we're just lucky."

"What's the worst that could happen if they were watching?" Percy finally asked.

"You'd be killed in battle," I said. "And I'd drown."

He nudged my shoulder with his, sending electricity up and down my spine. "Can you relax for five seconds?"

I sighed. "Say something that'll make me relaxed and I might."

He frowned. "Uh, my head's full of kelp?"

"That," I laughed. "Is what's making me _worry_."

But the DJ, a young Italian man with wavy dark hair and bright eyes, stopped the conversation.

"_Chiunque può chiedere una canzone_," he called to everybody. His eyes fell on us. "Americans, no? Would you like to request a song?"

"No, thanks, we don't really know any popular songs here..." I smiled, trying to make him pick someone else.

"No, I have one," Percy spoke up. He dashed to the DJ and whispered something. The man laughed, but flicked a switch on his dashboard. Suddenly the pavillion was flooded with the catchy intro of a song I'd heard this summer in a movie.

"Oh, my gods," I shook my head.

Really, only Percy could've picked it.


	9. Will You?

**A/N: YAY! Congrats to Athena0228, Randomglob24, and Tracknumber5 for your guesses, but especially to Percabethrulez -- you guessed it first! So whenever I draw the picture I'll PM it to you if that's okay :) And don't even think about reading this chapter without listening to the song. Go to youtube, then type "mamma mia song hq" and click on the first thing you see.**

**Also, I tried really hard with this chapter to get it just right.**

**There's a bit of a twist ending. It may seem sudden, but think about everything that's led up to this: it's not.**

**Let me know if I did okay in those reviews I love so much!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!**

"Oh, my gods," I said again. "Percy, this is _not_ an Italian song."

"It is so!" he insisted.

"It's _Abba_," I told him, laughing. "They're from Sweden, first of all."

He got very serious. "No, this is an Italian song. My mom took me to see that show on Broadway, and it was in Italy."

"That was Greece," I told him.

He looked crushed. "What?"

I shook my head. "Well, you picked it out, Seaweed Brain. Are we going to dance or what?"

He stayed mad for only a second longer. Then a smile won over his frown. "Sure, why not," he grinned.

_I was cheated by you  
And I think you know when_

"Da da da da da da, da da da da da da!" everybody screamed to the music.

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow.

Percy spun me around and laughed. "This is Europe," he said. "Get used to it."

_So I've made up my mind  
It must come to an end_

We slid in time to the song, spinning and jumping like crazy. Everybody looked more or less choreographed -- it was fantastic. But I swear on the River Styx, if anybody had a camcorder that night, I will kill them and hide the DVD.

_Look at me now  
Will I ever learn?  
I don't know how  
But I suddenly lose control  
There's a fire within my soul_

"JUST ONE LOOK AND I CAN HEAR A BELL RING!" half the room shouted.

"ONE MORE LOOK AND I FORGET EVERYTHING!" we screamed back.

_Woah-oh-ohhh  
Mamma Mia  
Here I go again  
My, my  
How can I resist you?  
Mamma Mia  
Does it show again  
My, my  
Just how much I missed you?_

"Yes, I've been broken-hearted," I sang, slightly off-pitch.

"Blue since the day we parted," Percy sang back, dancing like we were all on caffeine pills. He looked at me funny. "You really can't sing," he said honestly.

"Neither can you!" I laughed, throwing a streamer from the walls in his face.

_Why, why  
Did I ever let you go?  
Mamma Mia  
Now I really know  
My, my..._

"_I should not have let you go!_" Percy and I yelled with everybody else. We cracked up at how weird we sounded.

"C'mon," he nudged me, taking me by the hand. "I want to show you something."

I laughed and let him drag me along. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see!" he yelled over the blaring sound of ABBA.

I squinted in the darkness. "Are we going to the cliffs?"

"No," he grinned devilishly. We climbed up the rocky walls until we stood above the frothing ocean, the black velvet sky pierced by a few gleaming white stars. I looked down at the waves, feeling a little dizzy. I latched onto the twisted cypress tree next to us.

I turned my head to him suddenly and smiled. "Liar," I accused him. "We _are _on the cliffs."

"I didn't lie," he said simply. Then, still holding my hand, he gave me a really crazy look. It was like his eyes held fire.

"Percy?" I asked nervously. "What do you think you're...?"

But instead of answering, he jumped headfirst into the sea, taking me with him.

We plummeted down and down, Percy laughing, me screaming.

With a huge_ SPLASH! _we dove into the water, salty water droplets arcing above us in moonlit rainbows. We plunged through the sea slowly, and Percy still looked hysterical. At least _he _could breathe. I held my breath, trying hopelessly to conserve air.

Percy quit laughing for a second to look at me. He smiled, but not joking this time, and said something that I couldn't understand with the water.

I slapped him and pointed to the surface desperately.

When he finally tugged me up, the second I got air, I looked at him straight in the eye and started to scream.

"PERCY! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!"

He laughed. "Annabeth, you didn't die..."

"I COULD HAVE!" I shouted, shaking him by the shoulders. "NOT EVERYONE IS EXACTLY ABLE TO BREATHE UNDERWATER!"

"Do you really think I'd let that happen to you?" he asked, sincerely concerned.

"I was thinking about it," I crossed my arms from the cold. "And if you can't tell, Mr. I'm-so-clever-son-of-Poseidon, it's about fifteen degrees in here."

Percy sighed and tugged me close with one arm, using the other to paddle toward the beach. "Better?" he asked.

"A little," I admitted. "You're like a radiator."

We dragged ourselves onto shore, Percy still fighting a smile. "Grover and Juniper are up there," he said, nodding toward the party above us on the cliffs. "They've been hiding in Tuscany, so they decided to drop by."

"That's awesome," I agreed, my teeth chattering. "I haven't seem them since last summer."

"Me neither," he smiled.

I hugged my knees close to try to get warm. Stupid Percy. Now I was going to be the world's first ice cube in a black lace dress.

"What was the point of that?" I finally demanded after looking at my goosebumps.

"Oh, you know," he shrugged. "No reason. You just looked like you could handle a prank."

"Of course I can handle a prank!" I said self-righteously. "I'm a little _cold_, but I can_ handle_ it."

He laughed. "Right."

"Oh, you..." I rolled my eyes, but I didn't mean it. I missed acting like this around him -- like being his girlfriend. If this scene had happened, say, six months ago, things would be different. He would have thrown us into the sea and I would've gotten mad at him but eventually laughed, just like I was now. But it was different because, right about now, he'd probably give me a kiss to say he was sorry.

Obviously, that was not about to happen.

"I hate this," he mumbled after a while.

"I do, too," I flashed him a look. "I'm about to become an icicle."

"Not that," he shook his head. "This whole just-being-friends-thing. It's the stupidest idea the gods have ever _had_."

"Including education?" I reminded him.

"Well..." he considered this. "Yeah. This was _the_ stupidest."

"Same here."

He muttered, "I don't think I'm going to keep following their rules much longer."

"What?!" my eyes widened to the size of the grapefruits that Mr. D grows.

"Oh, forget I said anything," he groaned, throwing sand at me.

"Hey...speaking of that...what were you saying right after we went underwater?" I asked suspiciously. "You said something. I just couldn't _hear_, because _I_ don't have miraculous ocean powers."

"Oh, then?" he said. He paused, then leaned over and tucked a wet, blond strand of hair behind my ear. "I was just illegally thinking how beautiful you looked."

I stared at him. He was close. Really, really, _really_ close, like I could see every color in his iris. Forest green, hazel, jade...

"But what about Rachel?" I whispered eventually. "I thought you'd moved on already."

He snorted. "Yeah, right. Rachel. She was giving me advice on getting you a present, actually."

"_What?!"_

"Yeah," he looked at me and smiled. "So, I'm pretty much free right now."

Pause. Pause. Doves chirping, surf splashing the sand.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," I said eventually. "Um, you remember what you said at the beginning of the night?_"_

"Ye...no."

"You said maybe we could forget about the gods tonight."

He leaned in closer to where I was, though I think it was on accident. "Oh, yeah, I did say that."

"You think we could do that?" I asked, now very aware of how close he was to me. "It's not very smart...but the odds of them watching us tonight are only one in fourty-four, given everything else they have to do, and--"

"Sounds good to me," he whispered. We were going to kiss. Oh, wow. This was really strange, but really exhilarating at the same time. Like I said: six months ago this would have been normal.

Now, our possible kissing was kind of forbidden by divine law, which made it much more dangerous.

But Percy pulled away at the last second. "Come on," he told me, already climbing up the cliff wall.

"What are you trying to do?" I asked. I followed him anyway, but with Percy, _what are you trying to do_ is a question you have to ask a lot.

He paused on the rocks. "I have no idea," he shouted, and went on climbing.

A minute later, I'd pulled the lacy hem of my skirt free from a boulder and we were at the top of the cliff. "What now, Seaweed Brain?" I turned to him.

He helped me up and ended up pulling me closer to him. "Didn't we leave off somewhere?" he asked.

Smiling, I closed my eyes a little and waited for him to lean in. But, again...

"Hang on, I've got to come up with something," he interrupted, looking skyward as if that's where his idea would come from.

He still had me tightly in his arms, he just wasn't about to kiss me. Great.

"Okay. Got it."

"Percy...?"

"DEAR ATHENA, GODDESS OF WISDOM AND BATTLE, COUNSELER, ANNABETH'S MOM, ETC, AND POSEIDON, STORM-BRINGER, EARTHSHAKER, GOD OF SEAS, FATHER, ETC, AND ANYBODY ELSE WHO WANTS TO LISTEN," he shouted to the skies at the top of his lungs. He turned patiently to me. "Did I leave anything out?"

My jaw had since dislodged. When Percy does something like this, you can't even form the words _what are you doing_. Thunder crashed nearby, and clouds began to roll over the inky sky.

Did he know he was being an idiot, or was he actually unaware that he was about to get us both killed?!

And he _did_ forget that Athena also holds the title _Parthenos_, but whatever.

"Okay, I'll keep going," he turned back to the sky. "I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU, AND ANNABETH, KNOW THAT I DON'T REALLY CARE ANYMORE ABOUT WHAT YOU TOLD US TO DO."

Oh my gods, we were such dead meat.

"BECAUSE...BECAUSE SHE'S SMART, AND FUNNY, AND BRAVE, AND STRONG," he took a breath. "AND SHE'S SAVED MY BUTT MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT, AND SHE WANTS TO BE AN ARCHITECT AND SHE'S SCARED OF SPIDERS AND HAS DYSLEXIA BUT IS STILL A TOTAL GENIUS, AND..." he quit looking at the sky and looked at me. "And I love you, Annabeth. You know that? I don't when it started, but I do now and I've never stopped.

"So, gods? YOU CAN TRY WHATEVER YOU WANT. I DON'T CARE, YOU CAN'T KILL US -- WE'RE PART OF YOUR PROPHECY."

Sure enough, thunder struck again and torrents of rain flooded the sea. Well, I think they did. Funny, but I actually didn't feel anything or get wet. I looked back to Percy, who was glowing a bright gold. It was like there was a halo around him.

"I didn't think you needed to get any wetter," he explained, still with his golden glow.

Glancing down at my hands, I saw they were glowing gold too and dry as baby powder. I gaped at him.

"I'm sorry," he said sadly. "I really am. But I had to say that eventually. So, do you hate me now?"

I glared at him, then hugged him so close he couldn't breathe.

"Ack--Annabeth! Need air!"

"IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou..." I said over and over again, my eyes tightly shut.

"Is that a no?" he asked hopefully.

I pulled away and gazed at his literally glowing face. "You idiot," I told him happily. "That was the stupidest and bravest thing you've ever done for me."

"That was what I aimed for."

I grinned, taking in everything -- the salty sea air, the glow of our skin, the deep green of Percy's eyes.

"I had something to give you," he told me, very nonchalant. "But you probably don't want it..."

"Percy, why would I not want the present?" I scoffed.

"It's not really a present."

"Well, show it to me!" I urged, shivering again, but out of excitement instead of cold this time.

He reached inside his blazer pocket and brought out a pearly seashell. Taking his hands off my shoulders for a moment, he carefully opened the shell. It was lined with deep red velvet. On top of the velvet was...

"Annabeth," he said. "Will you marry me?"

I stared blankly at the sparkling diamond on the platinum band before me.

He gave me a long time to answer. He must have, because time quit moving for a few seconds. If you want to know what was going through my mind, nothing whatsoever about the fact that we were sixteen was in there. Nothing about a wedding in turbulent times. Nothing about waiting to go to college, or at least finish high school, before you're married. Nothing in my head about how ridiculously sudden this was, nothing about if I was ready or not.

Only one thing was rushing through my head.

So when I could finally speak again, a grin unfolded like a present on my face. "Of course, Seaweed Brain!" I exclaimed, nearly knocking him over in an embrace.

And we kissed, legal or not.


	10. October Can Get Stormy

**A/N: I know you'd rather read the chapter than my apologies. My apologies can wait. Merry late Christmas!**

"Gosh, where _were_ you?" Elizabeth the hunter asked, frantic. "We have twenty minutes until midnight! We've got to get to the Coliseum! "

"Coliseum?" I asked, dazed. Percy and I had found our way back to the pavilion party, where ABBA was no longer playing. What a shame. _Gimme Gimme Gimme_ would have fit perfectly. "Oh...for the...energy...thing..."

"We have time," Percy said.

"Not much!" Elizabeth tugged us away from the party, towards a large car. "Thalia says she doesn't mind that you're late, but she's lying. We think the Titan's Army is after us."

"_What?!" _Percy and I turned to her at the same time.

"Exactly!" she nodded fervently, squishing us into the car.

In the seat next to us, a tall, gangly kid with super-curly hair sat, knees shaking, his arm around a slim sprite.

"Grover?" I said. "Juniper?"

"Hey, guys!" Juniper breathed. She sounded terrified. "Wow, it's been a while."

"How's Tuscany been?" Percy asked as Thalia smiled from the front seat and backed out of the parking lot.

"Very Tuscan," Grover told us. "And very sunny."

The countryside flew by as the car, driven by Thalia, sped to the Coliseum.

"That's him," Thalia whispered to herself, her eyes flying wide open. "Oh, holy crap, that's _him_!"

"What?! Who?" I swiveled to look out the window, just as Elizabeth, Grover, Juniper, and Percy did.

But I didn't really need to ask.

Luke Castellan, in Kronos form, and about ten billion monsters followed only a mile behind us.

Thalia floored the pedal. It was a pretty decent European car, so we were going...I'd say 130 miles an hour.

"THALIA!" Grover screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"That's _Luke _behind us," she shouted over the roar of the road. "He's not going to be observing any speed limits either!"

Thanks to our new pace, we pulled into the Coliseum parking lot, literally burning rubber off our tires, in about thirty seconds.

"What time is it?" Thalia yelled as we piled out of the car.

"It's 12:01," Elizabeth told us. "Where _is_ everybody?"

Percy, Thalia and I were sprinting for the entrance. "I was an idiot," Thalia muttered between breaths. "I told them to get on a plane to England--that's where the next star is. _Gods_, I'm an idiot."

"No, you're not," Percy told her. "But we kind of need to _quit thinking about it and get the energy_!"

Sure enough, a glowing star floated in the center of the Coliseum. "At least it's obvious," I sighed as Thalia made a mad dash for the center. I looked behind my shoulder.

"_Crap_!"I screamed. "THALIA! They're pulling in!"

She yanked the star out, put two fingers in her mouth, and whistled.

"And that helps us..._how_?" Percy asked, pulling my hand and running towards her.

"She's got a plan," I told him.

"You must have rubbed off on her," he said.

And I was right. Swooping down from the sky like herons, three enormous creatures thumped down beside us. And I mean enormous, like a cross between an eagle and a huge horse. I've seen smaller minivans.

"Gryphons," Thalia shouted, shoving the star into a fiberglass box she clipped to the slightly large gryphon's saddle. She mounted her gryphon like a stallion. "Get on!"

You don't argue with Thalia when she sounds like that.

Percy swung his leg over the other gryphon and I followed suit behind him. Grover and Juniper claimed the third beast.

Thalia strung her bow, as did Elizabeth and Juniper. "It's only us now," she said quietly. "We can't go to England."

Percy looked as her like she was crazy. "But you just said--"

"I know what I said! We have to go to Greece! The Pantheon!" she dug her heels into the gryphon's side, and so did Percy and I. The gryphons launched into the sky, swishing through the air like feathered frisbees.

"The _pantheon_?" I repeated. "Are you _insane_? What happens to the other fifteen half-bloods and hunters when Luke's army follows them to England?"

"Yeah," Grover agreed, his voice shaking. "We...we have to protect them!"

She was trying to look confident, but I detected a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. "They're strong. They can fend for themselves."

Percy looked at her doubtfully. "We should go back."

_FWOOSH!_

A bullet sliced the air right behind my head.

"What the...!" I turned my head to face the shooter of said bullet and swore. "They've got _guns_, guys!"

"So?" Thalia, Elizabeth, Grover, and Juniper said in unison.

"As happy as we are for you guys," Percy explained, expanding the shield Tyson made for him. Bullets pounded his shield like raindrops. "Me and Annabeth can still be, I don't know, _killed by guns_."

Thalia looked at him for a second. Then, "Oh, yeah..."

She steered her gryphon in front of ours, tapping her chain bracelets until her shield Aegis appeared, stopping even more bullets. "Elizabeth! Bronze grenade!"

In one skillful, fluid motion, Elizabeth pulled out and tossed a small oval of celestial bronze to the ground below us. A hand grenade.

The bullet noises stopped.

We didn't look back to see the explosion. Luke would still be alive.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That explosion stalled them," Percy was trying to convince Thalia. "We have enough time to go to England."

She huffed out a breath. "_Fine_. I suppose you're right. It'll take time for them to get reinforcements."

_Yesss! _I thought silently.

"England it is," Percy nodded, letting out a deep breath.

We charted a course for Calais, France, where we'd cross the shortest part fo the English Channel possible and find our way to London.

"This could take a while," Elizabeth yawned. "Feel free to sleep."

I wasn't so sure, but Thalia and my fiance didn't need to be told twice. Percy leaned forward, resting his arms and head on the gryphon's fluffy, pillow-like back and was dead to the world in about two minutes.

I stayed up, keeping watch. Elizabeth chuckled. "You don't have to stay up, Annabeth," she told me. "I'll make sure you guys don't fall."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

I yawned too. I hadn't slept in what seemed like forever. Wrapping my arms around Percy's waist in front of me, I rested my head on his back and felt my eyelids flutter shut.

The last thing I thought I heard before falling into a deep, deep sleep was Elizabeth saying _what a beautiful ring_.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Annabeth?"

I opened one eye sleepily.

"Annabeth, wake up."

I swatted Percy away with one hand.

"We're at the Strait of Dover!"

Oh.

I sighed, dismounted our gryphon, and climbed in our medium-large motorboat we'd rented next to Percy. "Thanks a lot," I patted the gryphon gratefully. Then I turned to Thalia. "How long is this strait again?"

"Here? Twenty-one miles at its shortest point," she told me. "So we should get there in a little under twenty-five minutes, at least with this boat."

"Basically, short," I summarized.

Clouds were gathering on the horizon, rolling angrily like a bottled-up storm. We started the engine and were speeding off to England. Remembering what Elizabeth had said, I surreptitiously turned the diamond under my hand so you could only see the platinum band, which, hopefully, wouldn't be as obvious.

We made nervous small-talk for about fifteen minutes. _Yes_,I thought as the seas were mostly calm. _Please, please just let the rest of this trip be this smooth._

Of course, two miles from England, the sea got hellish.

It started slowly, maybe four miles back. Tiny raindrops here and there. Small waves rocking the boat a little bit. Salty wind.

"Kind of rainy, huh?" Elizabeth asked, walking to the edge of the boat and peering over.

Percy and I exchanged looks.

Thalia put her palm out to feel the raindrops, giving us suspicious stares. "Yeah," she agreed. "Kind of...wet..."

"Um. So, Juniper, bring back any souvenirs from Tuscany?" I asked hopefully.

Her eyes lit up. "Yes! They make the best wine there...well...I mean, technically Grover and I are old enough, you know..."

Grover snorted into his furry hand. "Juniper loves her wine."

Everybody laughed as she smacked him. I was just happy we'd gotten rid of the suspicious looks. Well, at least until a minute later, when the crack of lightning made all of us jump in our seats.

We dashed to the edge of the boat -- a wave taller than my house was about to crash over the boat.

"What?!" Juniper squeaked. "I checked the weather forecast before we came...it was supposed to be sunny and calm on the Channel..."

"Steer, Elizabeth!" Thalia yelled, dashing to the control board. She flipped a bunch of switches and Elizabeth steered like crazy, but the wave wasn't stopping.

With a _SWOOSH_, gallons of salt water poured into our boat, soaking everyone but Percy.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Juniper and Grover shrieked, clinging to each other in the glacier-cold water.

I felt like screaming, too, but I just shivered and ran to the sprite and her boyfriend. "You guys OK?" I asked.

Grover tried to give a thumbs-up, but Juniper shook her head miserably.

I pulled two thick blankets from under the padded seats around the rim of the boat and wrapped the two in them. I dug the extra life vests out of an open compartment under the seats and pointed to it. "Get in there," I told them. "There's another wave coming!"

I was right. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and a huge wave threatened to make me into Annabeth soup.

I wasn't scared, I was effing furious. Furious. Sixteen years of fighting monsters and surviving attacks, and then die from a stupid _tidal wave_?!

I shouldn't have wasted my time worrying though, because Percy caught me in his arms and turned me away from the wave. Being impervious to water, he was kind of like a...I don't know. Like an anti-water force field.

So Grover, Juniper, Percy, and I stayed dry and relatively warm, but I can't say the same for Elizabeth and Thalia. Thalia wasn't mad because she was cold, though. She was just stunned, and I wondered why.

Mouth hanging open, she walked toward me, still safe in Percy's arms--oh, yeah, she thought we weren't going out anymore--and held up my left hand.

I gulped as she turned the platinum band around to see the diamond. Her eyes grew as big as god-sized bread roll plates while I yanked back my hand protectively.

"Annabeth, Percy," she whispered slowly. "What did you _do_?"

I felt Percy's grip on me tighten.

"I'll fight for the gods, but I'm not their pawn," he told her. "And we're not taking orders from anyone. Annabeth and me, we'll make our own decisions, thanks."


	11. Crisp Fall Breeze? No, Galeforce Winds

**A/N: Hahahaha. This chapter was fun...it ended up a bit short compared to my other rambling chapters, though. Whoops. I'm TOTALLY in debt to every one of you guys who keep reading despite my dicey updates (or lack thereof) and sometimes dicey writing, too. And special thanks to those reviewers that left really awesome, sweet, long reviews, like Percabeth777, My name is Maxx, PercabethRulez, Random is an Understatement, LittleBluePistol, BeautifulSunrise, and a bunch of other people. Long reviews are like caffeine to me--I'm addicted. **

We were lucky the waves were so loud, because otherwise, there would have been a huge, two-minute hole of silence right then.

Grover was the first to speak up. "Is that..." he searched for the word. "An _engagement_ ring?"

And everybody started talking at once.

"That's so romantic!" Juniper shrieked in delight.

"I know I'm not supposed to encourage girls to get married," Elizabeth said, dashing over to squish me and Percy with thin, sinewy arms into a bone-crushing hug. "But this is just _too_ perfect."

"I thought you two had broken up?" Grover asked.

Juniper scoffed. "Of course not, Grover. Who said that?"

"That's what Thalia said they'd done in Paris."

"Well, she was obviously _wrong_--I'm sorry, Thal, that sounds mean. But...I mean, look!" she squealed again, pointing at my delicate, happily shimmering band. "Married!"

"You. Two," Thalia began, enunciating each syllable with enormous pent-up anger. "Are. _Sixteen_."

"So?" I blurted out, forgetting that I was trying not to say anything. "So are you!"

"_I'm_ not getting MARRIED!" she shouted, curling her hands into balled-up fists. Actually, she looked more like a five-year-old than a sixteen-year-old. I wondered when she'd stick out her tongue and call us poopyheads.

"What's wrong with getting married at sixteen?" Percy demanded.

Thalia stumbled with this. "L-lots of things!"

"Name one," Percy and I challenged at the same time.

She glared at us.

"Exactly!" I said.

"All right, here's one," she began, folding her arms. "What happens if you grow up and find a person you _really_ want to marry, huh? Sucks to be you then, doesn't it?"

Percy looked like he was about to call her something that would probably get him a knock to the skull with Aegis, so I intervened.

"Thalia," I told her. "Just because you never found anybody you loved that much doesn't mean that's true for everyone."

"And I _really_ want to get married to _this_ person," Percy said under his breath.

I nudged him. "Feeling's mutual," I whispered.

Her eyes turned frosty. "Maybe I did," she snapped. "But unfortunately, not _everybody_ who loves each other is on the same side!"

She turned on her heel and went to the wheel to land the boat...which would be hard, considering the waves hadn't died down.

"Ignore her," Elizabeth told Percy quietly. "She's just bitter that it's working out so well for you and Annabeth."

"Well?" I coughed in disbelief. "If you haven't noticed, Athena and Poseidon aren't exactly sending us advance wedding presents!"

"But Percy loves you back, right?" she said. "That's something Thalia never had."

"Um, yeah, 'cause I was kind of preoccupied with Wise Girl," Percy explained awkwardly.

Elizabeth snorted. We were still whispering quietly enough that Thalia, over the surf, couldn't hear us. "Not_ you_. The man _she _loved."

"Oh. Well, what was she talking about?" Percy asked. "I'm lost."

She sighed. "I'm not supposed to tell you. I think Annabeth already knows, though."

All eyes turned on me.

"Don't look at me!" I held my hands up in surrender. "I don't know anything!"

"Can I get that on tape?" Percy asked.

Grover looked at him questioningly. "What?"

"Whenever Wise Girl tries to show me up with something, I can just replay that over and over. _I don't know anything, I don't know anything, I don't kn--"_

I slugged him. "Watch it, fiancé."

"You do, though," Elizabeth said. "Think about it. You'll remember."

I'll remember?

Fat chance.

I sat in deep thought until the boat landed, and kept thinking all the way on the drive to London.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Decision time," I finally said as we pulled up to the beautiful, modern Shafetsbury Hotel in Hyde Park, breaking my silent streak. Percy was driving; I got shotgun. Everyone else had gotten an SUV. "Shall we try keeping a secret from another twenty people?"

Percy grimaced. "Your choice."

I smiled weakly. "Wow, thanks," I replied with no shortage of sarcasm.

"You're very welcome."

I flicked the diamond so it spun around my finger. It was weird--I felt so _adult_ with this engagement ring, but it felt right. I wasn't living with my parents; I was traveling on my own; I suppose I was grown up, in a way. Maybe not my mind, though. My mind, despite my being a child of Athena, could still fizzle out and die on me on occasion...particularly when I was standing close to the person currently sitting next to me.

I let my head flop onto his shoulder. "You're making a mess of me," I muttered.

"What did I do?" he asked indignantly.

I sighed. "You mixed up my brain. I was a lot more clear-thinking before you came along."

"Excuses, excuses," he said complacently. Then he looked flattered. "Wait, _I_ messed up Wise Girl's _brain_? I'm a lot more powerful than they give me credit for!"

"Oh, shut up," I jokingly snapped my head away from his shoulder.

"Hmm. Maybe I can get them to call me the Chosen One," he continued. "Percy Jackson, _the Chosen One_. I could write a book."

"Like it would sell," I rolled my eyes. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but your life isn't that interesting."

He snorted. "Sure it isn't, Wise Girl," he said. "I could use a pen name. Nobody needs to know it's me."

"But can you _write_?" I asked skeptically.

"Of course."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you flunked English at the last three schools you went to."

"Dyslexia!" he insisted, taking advantage of my doubtful expression to sneak a sweet kiss on my lips.

I gave up on being strong and independent and, after kissing him back, let him snake his arm around my shoulder. And, okay, I was glad. He was warm, and protecting, and it helped me think. How should I know who Thalia had loved? True, I knew her like a sister..._knew_. Emphasis on the past tense. She was very leader-like now, and often very crabby, and very, very different. But when I did know her, she never seemed to have an interest in anyone. She was always too caught up in our latest scheme, sort of like I was...although I did have time to fantasize about--wince--Luke.

No. I was so happy that part of my life was over. I had someone much better.

"New idea," I said, still flicking my diamond around and around. Little glimmers of blue, like salty waves, danced within the sparkling gem. "We don't say anything. The first person who notices the ring can start the pandemonium."

Percy's eyes glinted mischeviously. "Fine by me. I'll shut up while they do all the talking."

"And me?" I asked, a smile tugging at my lips.

He brushed my cheek with the back of his hand. "You," he murmured. "just stand there and look pretty."

I smiled for real and entwined my fingers in his. Whoever noticed the ring first better be talkative, then.

If only we knew that person would be Silena Beauregard.


	12. More Ridiculous than Halloween

**Hey everybody! :) Thanks are in order. A) You guys are absolutely right, I misspelled Silena as "Selena" (idiot that I am). It's fixed now. B) Sorry about the stupid-looking lines, like how there's a really long paragraph here then really short lines everywhere. It looks sooo different on my TextEdit. C) To Cool007 -- it's ideas like yours (and Percabethrulez back during Frosty Winter) that make me _wish _I hadn't already planned out the next five chapters, because then I could quit using my crappy ideas and use yours. However, I did already plan out five crappy chapters. :( Sighhh...I'm no Annabeth when it comes to smarts.**

This is how it happened.

Considering all of us half-bloods had been scattered for so long, it was no surprise that we kept picking up strays here and there. It was even _less_ of a surprise that many, many of Aphrodite's children happened to be scattered around Europe.

The whole crew, along with a bunch of Aphrodite stragglers who busied themselves flitting around braiding hair and stuff, chatted in the sleek, lime green private ballroom as we awkwardly headed in. They grinned, but quieted down for the most part, as they noticed our entrance.

"One more star!" Elizabeth announced quietly but triumphantly to the group. Didn't want to make the receptionists in the lobby outside suspicious. "That's all that's left."

Me and Percy had quit holding hands, hopefully to not call a bunch of attention to ourselves. Thalia...well, Thalia was being Thalia. Her eyes were narrowed, her arms locked against her chest, her face frozen into a grimace. It didn't help that I _still _couldn't figure out who she used to love.

"Star?" A cute if somewhat sissy Aphrodite boy named Davide asked. "What's this all about?"

Elizabeth put her finger to her lips and sat down on a couch to explain. "We just call them stars," she began. "It's actually energy..."

While she explained the plot to collect the healing energy--and, hopefully, revive Camp Half-Blood--before Kronos did, I subtly flipped my wedding band over. The sparkling gem was quite conspicuous otherwise.

Among all the chatter, my brain--muddled though it was by my horrifying, imminent wedding--calmed down, and the gears began to turn. For some reason, the most recent dreams I'd managed to squeeze into my nearly sleepless nights had focused around one person: Luke Castellan.

I'd gotten over my...um, intensified crush for Luke a long time ago. But a love for him, as a brother, still burned inside me, and it killed me to see him as Kronos. My mind started spinning in strange ways when I got to work about thinking how to somehow seperate him, body and soul, from Kronos' spirit--partly for selfish reasons, but more importantly, to rid Kronos of his body. I needed someone with experience about separation of body and spirit...

Of course.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," I said, turning toward our bags. "I'm going to see if I can find Daedalus' laptop and do some work, okay?"

"His laptop?" he asked. "Yeah, okay, but why now?"

"Just an amazing idea," I said, "As usual."

I kissed his cheek in excitement before I dashed to my bags and remembered our kisses _weren't_ helping the Aphrodite kids stay calm.

I fired up the glowing computer, sitting cross-legged by--dangit!--the ebony-haired beauty, Silena Beauregard. I liked Silena just fine, and she was one of my greatest girlfriends. She was also one of the girliest and romance-prone, even more so than many of her sisters.

"Hey, Silena," I grinned, giving her a huge hug. _Please, please don't my ring poke her in the back..._

"Annabeth Chase!" she laughed musically, returning the hug and kissing my cheek. "It's been _forever_. How have you guys been?"

I rolled my eyes. "Busy. All across Europe in less than a week. You know Thalia's plan with this star stuff..."

"No, no," she waved my words away with one hand like the plan to revitalize our home had about as much significance as last week's episode of _The Biggest Loser_. "I meant how have _you guys_ been?"

I felt a blush creep up my cheeks, with absolutely no permission from me. "Fine," I mumbled.

She giggled. "Right."

"_Right._"

"Kissing's always better in Europe," she teased me. "I would know."

"Um, me and Percy are kind of on the down-low about going out right now, Silena," I hinted.

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "And why?"

I ran my fingers across the cool platinum band behind my back. "Something...big, kind of...changed the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing." Maybe she'd be happy with that.

Her chocolatey eyes grew to enormous sizes. And they were already pretty enormous. "Ehmagosh," she breathed. "Annabeth..."

For a hideous second, I thought she knew. "I _know_," I moaned. "But Silena, I really, really love him. Truly. Enough to--"

"YOU'RE _PREGNANT_?!?" she shrieked, loud enough for every half-blood, Hunter, and human in a four-mile vicinity to hear. I could even hear grumbling in the lobby outside.

There was no pause this time--everybody responded immediately. "What?!"

"Ha ha, really? Annabeth?"

"Shhh, Max! It's not funny!"

"How far along are you?"

And Percy: "With _WHO?!"_

"Shut up!" I whispered, but so urgently everybody fell silent. "I'm..._not_...pregnant. Okay?"

The same boy, Max, I guess, who'd been laughing pointed to Silena. "But Silena said..."

"I _know_ what Silena said," I said exasperatedly. "She was being funny. Duh."

Half of everybody looked relieved--Percy especially--and half of everybody pouted.

"Sorry to disappoint everyone," I smiled, thankful it hadn't gone too far. But still--_yuck_. How did she think I was pregnant?

"Thanks a lot," I muttered as we sat back down on the couch.

She blushed almost as bad as me. "Sor-_ree_," she whined. "But you did say..."

"Do I _look_ pregnant to you?!" I demanded.

She let that one pass. "What other 'big thing' could change your relationship?" she chattered quietly. "I mean, it's not like we have _jobs_ or _college_ or anything."

"No," I agreed cautiously. I wasn't sure I wanted Silena to guess right.

She nodded her black curls once. "So it's got to be that you're pregnant, or..." she trailed off. Her brown eyes seemed lost in thought. Her face shifted faster than a traffic light, from serene, to confused, to realization, to shock, to...

"HOLY. HERA."

Remember the first time she screamed? How anybody within a four-mile radius could here? That was nothing. That was a gentle whisper. Basically, all of London and the surrounding countryside could hear Silena now.

"YOU...YOU AND HIM ARE..." she looked from me to Percy, lounging without a care in the world on a loveseat he'd taken up all on his own. Her face positively glowed. She had to cover her expanding grin with her hands. "YOU TWO ARE...ENGAGED?!"

She spun around so fast she knocked over a crystal vase, which Max barely caught in time. She fumbled for my left hand as quickly as she could, her ecstatic smile only widening when she saw the ring. I slapped her hand away with a sense of deja vu.

"GUYS!" she exclaimed, presumably to her brothers and sisters. Everyone's face was glowing as stupidly as hers. Fantastic. Didn't they have any soap operas in England they could watch instead? Instead of other half-bloods' private lives?!

"_Awwww_!" my little half-sister Christine sighed happily.

"Way to go, man," Charles Beckendorf (he seemed to be floating around Silena a lot lately) said, clapping Percy on the back. Percy eyed him moodily.

"Silena," I hissed. "Way. To. Go."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me earlier," she began at top speed. "Do you know how much stuff we have to plan? Booking churches, florists, caterers...it's _so _much easier if you tell us in advance."

"What are you talking about?" I squeaked. "You're not planning anything!"

She snorted. Her smile had not yet vanished, and now _all_ the Aphrodite kids were practically exultant. "That's what you think."

Percy had leapt up from the couch the minute Silena screamed. By now, his face was turning an unnatural icy white. "Planning the...the _wedding?_ That's what you meant?" he choked.

"Duh," she told us. "It's _so _romantic. Married at sixteen. Just like Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet--"

Thalia growled in the corner. She still hadn't gotten over her temper tantrum.

Percy blinked. "First, um...did you _have _to tell everyone?"

She thought for a second. "Yeah. You want everyone to come, right?" she didn't wait for our reaction. "Exactly. Yes, I had to."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Okay, second, I didn't think were planning on _having _a ginormous wedding, Silena. We sort of have Kronos and stuff to deal with."

She laughed. "Right. Don't worry, Percy, we'll handle all the details."

"No, he's right," I stepped in. "I was thinking more along the lines of 'Vegas' than 'my big fat Greek wedding'."

"_Vegas_?" she whispered, shuddering. "Don't--even--_mention_ it. That place and its wedding chapels are an _insult_ to me and my mother. They completely ruin fairy-tale romance, the way it's supposed to be."

"They're fast," Percy and I retorted at the same time.

"Exactly!" Davide exclaimed.

Alexis, a honey-haired Aphrodite girl, nodded. "You don't rush these things," she said gently. "But don't worry, we won't get in the way of the war."

I stared at them stonily. "I need to get back to work," I muttered, drudging back to Daedalus' laptop. "Can we talk later?"

They snickered and skittered away, probably to scheme some more. I moaned and put my head in my hands as Percy sat down next to me.

"Hey, it's okay," he said, putting his arms out and hugging me gently. "They're just obsessed."

"Yeah," I said in a small voice. "I'm sorry, Seaweed Brain. It's my fault."

He stared at me. "No, it's not," he said. "You think the weirdest things."

"Yeah, it is," I mumbled. "But whatever. I need to finish this research here."

He yawned. "I'll stay with you," he said sleepily. "I don't want to move my stuff upstairs."

"Oh, aren't you a hard worker," I laughed. But I let him stay while I worked...and worked...and worked...

I'd often spent nights at home poring over Daedalus' work on my own. It was fascinating, just to look at the _ideas _one man could come up with. But now that I had a mission in mind, it wasn't quite the same.

Words flashed across the screen as I searched for notes he would have taken. _Gold alloy...brain patterns...phage-mechanism DNA insertion...soul capture..._

I was getting closer. It was tough work, full of repetition--I could see the sun sink lower in the sky and the other half-bloods move on as my work continued--but it was worth it if I could find something, anything that would stop Kronos and save Luke.

_More soul capture...stainless-steel spirit containers..._

I don't know if you've ever done research like this, but you can feel when you're getting close.

It's a strange, tingling feeling.

And I was getting close.

_Recompressing soul tissue...revitalizing split DNA with RNA template..._then...

Bingo.


	13. Plane Tickets Cost Less in Autumn

"Seaweed Brain!"

He kept snoring.

"_Percy!"_

He awoke with a start, and his words instantly reminded me how intelligent he was: "Mm...gadgha...oshtka...."

I shook his shoulders. "I found it. There _is_ a way to get Luke back, back from being Kronos."

He buried his head back under the pillow. "Great. Fantastic. Luke's my favorite topic of conversation."

"Quit being a jerk for five seconds."

"Um, why?"

"Even if you don't like him--" I started, ignoring Percy's eyeroll. "--and I don't either, he used to be our friend. We can't just let him die."

Silena loped gracefully into the room. "Plus, if Kronos doesn't have a body, he can't, like, fight us, can he?"

"That too," I added.

"Aren't you supposed to be planning the wedding?" Percy asked her.

Silena laughed. "Oh, please. Like we hadn't been up until 11:00 PM planning."

"That's gross."

"It's lovely."

"All right, enough wedding talk," I said. "Doesn't anyone want to hear what I just found?"

"Duh," Silena and Percy said in unison.

I told them.

After I was done, Silena looked positively glowing, while Percy was still as worried as ever. "We're going to need some help from the kids in the Demeter cabin," he thought aloud.

I bit my lip nervously. "Obviously. If they can even handle it."

"But more than that, we'll need_ Thalia_," Silena winked, shaking her thick black hair. "Surely you knew that, Annabeth."

I groaned, not because Silena was being so...Silena, but because she was right. I did know that.

"We've got to tell the others," I said, shoving my laptop back in my bag and heading through the lobby to outside, a bright London morning. "Where are they?"

"Some stupid quest thing," Silena frowned. "Something about a star. Calliope Energy or something."

"Callistan," I corrected automatically.

"That's right. They already went to Big Ben to get the star, last night around midnight. They're probably at the airport already."

Percy yelped suddenly. "They _left_ us?"

"Me, too," Silena added. "I needed my beauty sleep, of course. I guess I slept right through them leaving."

"Thalia," I muttered to Percy. "Still mad at me...and you, come to think of it."

"So immature," Silena huffed. Things weren't too tight between the Aphrodite cabin and the hunters, what with the Hunters' view that love was worthless. She whistled for a taxi and, of course, had no trouble making a male taxidriver stop for us. "That's what happens when you pledge to stay fifteen for all eternity."

------------

Going through another airport reminded me how much I hated security lines: almost as badly as my mother hated Percy's father.

When the three of us finally reached the plane (headed for Athens, Greece. Of course.), Silena led us in stalking right towards the ever-growing group of half-bloods. On the bright side, it was a huge plane, bigger than a Boeing 757. I mean, _enormous. _There were two floors and a conference room--I couldn't believe our luck, good for once.

Thalia raised an eyebrow as we three approached her posse. "You didn't miss the plane," she noted.

"Conference," Percy said darkly. "Now."

"Excuse me, sir," a pretty dark-haired girl told him--a flight attendant--tapping him on the shoulder. "The conference room is unavailable until after we're at least about 9000 feet."

Silena, Thalia, and I looked down to hide our grins.

Percy scowled. "All right, conference...once we're above 9000 feet."

Our plane rocketed into the sky, and nobody got zapped by a lightning bolt, not even Percy. It eased my mind to know that Thalia at least asked her dad not to blast us out of the sky. She may have been mad, but she wasn't murderous.

We filed as quietly as we could into the mahogany-paneled room, and a couple of people pushed Percy to the front. "C'mon, Percy," a daughter of Apollo named Caitlyn prodded. "What's the big news?"

He looked like he was about to explain, but stopped. "It's not my idea," he admitted. "This was all Annabeth."

Everyone's eyes turned on me.

I tried to hide my reddening cheeks and sat up a little straighter. I cleared my throat. "Right, well," I began, taking off my backpack. "I did some research...on Daedalus' laptop...and it looks like there's a way to bring Luke back."

Hushed, dark whispers from this.

I pressed on. "The solution...it's an elixir. It won't be easy to make. We need all sorts of fancy ingredients: kingsfoil, wolfsbane, blood orchid, and especially moly." I glanced at Percy. "That one was in those vitamins Hermes gave you...um, do you have any left?"

"You tossed them all to the rabid guinea pigs," he reminded me.

I blushed. "Oh. Right. Well, yes, we'll need some exotic ingredients. We can find them or grow them, whichever's faster."

"We can help with growing them!" cried a newcomer, a sweet 10-year-old. She was in cabin 4, Demeter.

I tried to smile. "Thanks, Alyssa," I told her, knowing it wouldn't help. I think the older Demeter kids felt the same. Blood orchid?! What demigod had ever successfully grown one of those?

Silena coughed delicately.

I tried ignoring it. "We're going to need everyone's help. That means you, too, Grover. Round up all the satyrs you can to help grow the things we need."

Silena coughed again, louder this time.

"Need a cough drop, Silena?" Juniper giggled.

Percy gagged. "Cough drops--eucalyptus--_yuck_."

"No, thank you," she declined. "I would just like to point out that Annabeth forgot...."

"I didn't forget," I muttered. "I was just procrastinating. Fine, there's one more part to this." I looked uncomfortably into fifty pairs of eyes, gazing back at me, hanging on to every word. "Luke must, of his free will, show unwavering devotion to an individual _other_ than his body-dwelling master. That is, Kronos."

"What?" a few people murmured.

I stumbled along. "It's to fully separate the two souls. The elixir just works with the body, you know, so Luke can't freeze time anymore. And he'll look different. But, working with the elixir, to remove the essence of Kronos from Luke..."

"He has to fall in love!" Silena butted in. "He has to fall in love with somebody and prove it!"

The room's volume upped about ten decibles.

Amid the crazy chatter, Thalia's whole body tensed. Her knuckles turned white under her already fair skin. I shivered, knowing how badly I'd be in for this, especially when Thalia was already mad at me.

"Prove it?" Grover asked loudly over the din, nibbling on the foil wrapper the plane peanuts came in. "How's he going to do that?"

"Well, there are many ways the ancient laws define unwavering devotion--" I began hopelessly.

"A _kiss_," Silena sighed dreamily. "He has to _kiss_ his true love!"

I thought the entire Aphrodite cabin would die of elation.

"True love," mused Charles Beckendorf, casually looping his arm around Silena. "Hey, isn't that you, Annabeth?"

"Taken," Percy said. He'd gotten bored, probably since he'd already heard my plan and was as ADHD-prone as I was, and began flipping through the SkyMall magazine they stored in the backs of seats again.

I'd gone even redder. I'm sure I looked like a blonde tomato. "Whatever would make you think," I asked furiously. "That me and Luke could be together?!"

"You were always staring at him when he went shirtless during swordfighting," Silena said. "Ever since the first day I came to camp. When we were nine."

"All right, all right!" I shouted, holding up my hands amidst the racket. "Calm down! It's not going to be me, considering I'm engaged--and you knew that, Beckendorf--so...anybody want to volunteer?" A heavy silence slowly replaced the thundering noise. "It would have to be somebody who knew Luke well," I added.

"Someone who'd been with him for a while," Percy agreed.

"Someone close to his age," Juniper said slowly.

Nobody spoke for a few seconds.

Then Thalia said, "All right, Grover, looks like the job's up to you."

"Hey!" he cried, swallowing his wrapper in one bite. "Remember Juniper?"

"Thal-i-_a_," Silena moaned, dancing to where she sat, curled up in a stubborn little ball. "Please-oh-please will you cooperate?"

"What?!" A newer Hunter, maybe ten or eleven, gasped.

Rose shook her head emphatically beside her. "Absolutely not!"

"No," Thalia barked in agreement.

"It would save camp!"

"No."

Silena smiled hopefully. "We could give you a makeover..."

"NO!"

"Thalia," Percy folded his magazine. "Silena's right."

She gave him a first-class death glare. "Are you suggesting I need a makeover, Bubble Boy?"

He narrowed his eyes, curling his hands into fists.

I'm not exactly sure what happened after that, but it looked to me like the sink in the corner of the conference room exploded. And Thalia's hair and clothes got soaked. And a lot of people started giggling or screaming or both.

Thalia's wide eyes were too surprised to be angry--yet. "Wha--what was that for?!"

"Makeover," Percy bit his lip to keep from laughing. "_Much _better."

Thalia raised a dripping fist. "Don't mess with me when you're flying in the sky, Seaweed Brain!"

"Whatever," Percy said, though he _did_ sit down. "I meant about saving camp. If we don't stop Kronos, we'll lose all of our demigods in months. And the rest of the world in only a few more months."

She snorted. "What makes you think he won't just use another minion's body once we get Luke away?"

"We don't," I said. "But it'll buy us a lot of time, and an advantage. There's nobody as well-trained as Luke to house Kronos' spirit."

"He'd have to search and train for a long time," Percy confirmed. "Enough time for us to enlist the gods' help...and fight them."

Thalia's face shifted microscopically. For once, she looked a little less preoccupied with threatening us and a little...concerned. Torn, maybe.

A light knocking on the door stopped the conversation, and a different, red-headed flight attendant peeped in. "Terribly sorry to interrupt," she said, characteristically British, "But the Fasten Seatbelt sign is now on. I'll have to ask that you return to your seats until we pass into calmer skies."

Sighs and groans from the rest of the half-bloods. Most people shuffled out, fighting over seats ("I said I wanted aisle!", "No, Pollux, we said we'd switch halfway through," etc.). But Thalia hung back, staying with Percy, Grover, Juniper, Silena and me.

"I'm not saying I won't consider it," she spoke low and quickly. "But you can't just forget about this. I'm a _Hunter_. It's my life. I wanted this. And I'd be giving up immortality, and the leadership of the other Hunters."

I stared at her. "I get that, Thal, really. But if Artemis falls because Kronos was able to take over, what's the point of immortality?"

She sighed. "I guess you have a point."

"I think this is more about Luke than being a Hunter," Percy said bluntly.

I punched him. Hard. "Seaweed Brain!" I hissed.

"Look, can we talk about this after we land?" Thalia asked, looking down. Her voice wavered. "I--I need to get back to the other Hunters."

I nodded sympathetically, and even Percy shut his mouth for once.

"In Greece?" I whispered, hoping we'd land soon.

She drew her hand to her face, so quickly it was a blur. But I caught her fingers wiping away a slippery diamond on her cheek--a lone tear. She nodded."In Greece."


	14. Clearing Things Up

**A/N: Hahaha, FUNNY story...well, actually it's not funny at all, but I forgot an author's note last time. Unfortunately for YOU, I REMEMBERED this time! Haha!**

**OHMIGOODNESS, LOGAN LERMAN IS PLAYING PERCY JACKSON IN THE MOVIE.**

**He's incredibly cute/hot. Can I please marry you, Logan? Thanks!**

**I'll quit fangirling. Point is, I forgot to mention one of the reasons I couldn't get up the last chapter. I have my own story that I'm writing...I'm dearly in love with the characters...and it felt SO weird to come back to writing from Annabeth's point of view. LIke I'd slip up and make her sound like Brooke (my protagonist), and then I'd be like, oops, Annabeth's more intelligent than that, and she's not that sarcastic, and she's less curious, and she's already engaged, and yada yada yada.**

**Sorry. Long rant. I guess if you want to hear the story I could post it but it's LONG and has NOTHING to do with PJO so it might not be too interesting. LOVE your reviews!!! Superhug to everybody!!!**

**(PS -- I hate the title I gave this story. "A Golden Autumn"?! WTF?! I can't update this thing without hearing the title spoken by some British guy inside my head!)**

Athens, Greece, even if you're there just to get a blazing star of a long-passed mythological Greek woman so you can save a camp for demigods, is still beautiful.

I said so.

"It's beautiful," I breathed the instant we stepped off the jet.

"Yeah, yeah," Beckendorf grumbled. "_Beautiful_. Hmph. What has Greece ever invented?"

"Um, the steam engine, odometers, thermometers, tumble locks..." I said.

Beckendorf laughed heartily. "Kid stuff!"

I decided not to argue. The sun was just dipping below the horizon, so we only had a few hours to goof off before heading to the Parthenon.

I spent the majority of those hours conversing with Thalia.

"Please," I begged her. "We need you!"

She shook her head. "What am I supposed to do with my Hunters? They just lost their second-in-command. I can't back out now."

"Well, it wouldn't be right now, it would be whenever we found a way to administer the elixir," I tried weakly. "You can't tell me you don't have any feelings for Luke."

She glared at me coldly. Her eyes shone either from anger, or from forming tears. "It obviously wasn't enough. I couldn't bring him back, Annabeth. Ever think about that? Ever think about how he _had_ a choice? He didn't choose _you_, he didn't choose _me_, he didn't choose his brothers and sisters and Chiron or even his father. He picked the other side. Why do you even want me to give this up for nothing, for nobody?!"

"Listen to yourself," I muttered. "_Nobody_. Right. Well, maybe you could go back to being a Hunter afterwards?"

"Are you kidding?" she spat. "Once you break your oath, you can never go back. You should know that."

"It's one kiss!" I said, exasperated.

"You weren't so glib right after Mt. St. Helen's."

"Right, well, I got it over with, and look at me now," I held out my hands brightly. "Ecstatic!"

"And about to get married," she grumbled. I secretly think she was, underneath, delighted to have changed the subject. I was about to turn it right back around to Luke, but that look she'd had, like a sad, scared kitten in the gutter, kept me from bringing him up again.

"Oh, please," I rolled my eyes. "I know you're happy for me."

"No, I'm not."

"That's a lie."

"Anti-marriage, anti-romance is basically Artemis' code."

I took a big breath, then let it out with a _whoosh_. "Yeah, about that..." I took her hands. "Look, Thalia, I don't have a real, true sister."

"Oh, boy."

"And you're my best friend. Ever."

"Not _this..._" she moaned.

I said it anyway. "Heck, you _are_ my older sister."

She huffed and eyed me suspiciously. "I'm your half-aunt, actually."

"Gods transcend genetics," I reminded her. "You're my sister. Which is why I'm asking, from the bottom of my heart, Thal," I smiled hopefully. "Would you mind being my maid of honor?"

She groaned and dropped my hands.

"It wouldn't be _that_ terrible," I frowned.

"Oh, yes it would," she mumbled. "Some sister you are!"

"I would be your maid of honor!"

"_You_ aren't dead-set against weddings."

I crossed my arms, uncomfortable, and stared out over the gently lapping waves. The sunset had painted the whole world golden, with the icy blue water sparkling so bright it was blinding. Mercifully, the sun was going down.

I think she noticed how quiet I got. "You promise that you and Seaweed Brain are 100% in....love," she managed.

"Promise."

"Not just a crush."

"Are you kidding?!"

"Right. Would you die for him?"

I tilted my head towards a twisted cypress tree, bleached white by the salty waves. All the stupid, funny things Percy tended to do raced past my mind: his clumsiness, his ability to point out the obvious, his stubborn head. And his courage, his selflessness, his sense of humor, his talent with a sword.

His smile. His heart.

So I realized her question wasn't a question at all.

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips, my eyes still locked on the cypress tree. "Well...yeah."

"Would he die for you?"

I snorted, turning back to her. "He almost has, several times."

She paused for a moment, and for a hideous second I thought she would say no. But instead, she just groaned, "Do I have to wear a dress?"

I pounced on her with a viselike hug. "You're the best, Thalia!" I shouted, forgetting for a second that her ear was right by my face.

"Ouch, eardrums!" she complained, but I could tell she was smiling. "I guess that means a lot of scheming time with Silena. Boy, oh boy."

I sighed, releasing her. "I feel your pain, Thal."

"What?" she raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were loving all the fancy veils and flowers and crap."

"Not really. Not at all."

"So I _don't_ have to wear a dress," she thought aloud, her face brightening.

I laughed. "Of course not. The only thing that matters is that everyone I love is there. Show up in jeans, for all I care."

I heard angry thumping from behind us and quickly pivoted to see the flawless-but-angry face, perfectly made up, of Silena Beauregard. She looked at us like we'd just fed her entire wardrobe through the paper shredder.

"Oh, no, you don't!" she growled. "Just _try_ wearing jeans to the wedding of the century, Thalia. Just _try_. See what happens!"

"Yeah, that was the plan," Thalia muttered.

Silena stomped her foot loudly. "I will not have your scrappy denim interfere with the dreamy color scheme!"

But the two cooled down enough to mosey on over with us to the Acropolis, with the Parthenon, around eleven that night. It was time to snatch the last star of Callistan energy, and then we could head back home. Finally.

Our ridiculously large group turned a corner, revealing the time-tested columns of my mother's temple: the Parthenon itself. I breathed in, my eyes growing wider.

"Forty-six columns, 101.32 feet by 228.14 feet, built of sacred limestone," I rattled off breathlessly. "Previously held a forty foot statue of Athena Parthenos, lost in a fire when--"

"Annabeth," Travis and Connor Stoll turned on me at the exact same time, though it was hard to be intimidated by two twin boys who were at least a half foot shorter than you. "Chill!"

I just bathed in the glory of the temple--although, of course, it was nearly midnight, so everything had taken on a navy blue tinge accordingly. The limestone really was beautiful.

I felt someone wrap his arms around my waist. "What does 'Parthenos' mean?" Percy asked me.

I opened my mouth, but Grover beat me to it. "Virgin," he yawned, scratching his fur. "Can we go to sleep when this is over?"

But Beckendorf, Drake, and the Stoll brothers were too busy laughing.

"Tough luck, Percy," Beckendorf shook his head sympathetically. "You're marrying a girl whose mom's the goddess of virgins."

I shot a look at Beckendorf. Even though Percy was still holding me tight, I had the feeling I wasn't part of this conversation. A blush was already creeping up Percy's cheeks. "Knock it off," he snapped.

Drake snickered. "What's the point of getting married, then?"

"Drake!" I shrieked, turning around to smack the side of his face. I missed, but only because anger blurred my vision.

Thalia stomped in on us, placing her hands on Drake and Beckendorf's shoulders.

"OWW!" they shrieked, jumping back from her like she was on fire.

She feigned innocence. "Sorry. Was that me?"

Beckendorf rubbed his shoulder moodily. "Let's just get the star, all ready," he muttered.

Percy smiled, picking me up to squeeze me in a hug. I knew it wasn't exactly new or anything, this PDA, but I got butterflies anyway.

"Percy!" I gasped, swinging my feet a few yards above the ground. "Hello! Oxygen, please!" He let me down gently, and I sucked in a breath of air as quickly as possible. I shot him a semi-irritated look, almost smiling. "I think I liked it better when I was taller than you."

"Tough luck, Wise Girl."

I grinned and turned back to Thalia. "Thanks," I whispered. "I owe you one."

"Owe me one what?" she said coyly, sauntering to the middle of the temple, tar-black in the night's dark. "Okay, okay. Four minutes to midnight."

"Where are the rest of the stars?" Percy mused aloud.

Elizabeth nodded her bouncy blond head to Rose, who sighed and rolled her eyes. But she did, eventually, dig into her leathery backpack. Somehow--magic, I assumed--she managed to pull out a ten-foot-wide cage, blindingly white and crowded with four miniature stars, radiating heat and illuminating the entire Parthenon. "_Don't_ touch it," Rose warned, shooting daggers toward us with her eyes.

We didn't touch it.

The moon rose slowly but steadily over our heads, throwing a beam of light through the openings in the walls. One day, I promised myself, someday soon, I was going to build a monument to the gods with light as glorious as that. I'd already described my dream to Percy...it would be a tall, but well-proportioned (with abundant use of the golden ratio!) building, with a triangle-based facade, built of rose marble that would glow in the sunset.

The carvings in the back wall of the temple would shift according to the moon cycle, so a new Olympian's symbol would flash on the floor, lit by the sun during the day and moonbeams like this one during the night. And now that I thought of it, I think I would position statues of the Olympians in a semicircle around the back side, leafed in pure gold or silver...maybe they could correspond to the gods' positions on Mt. Olympus, as if you were standing in on the Winter Solstice.

Thalia glanced at her wristwatch again and smiled. "It's time," she said. Lightly tapping the center of the Parthenon with her foot, the silver-clad hunter called forth a glimmering, floating star--burning bright in the midnight darkness. She carefully cupped her hands around the white energy emanating from the star. "Rose?"

Rose clicked open the cage, letting Thalia gently blow on the energy to steer the star into its kennel. Rose snapped the lid shut, and even though I hadn't seen her grin yet, it looked as if she almost, sort of, kinda half-smiled.

"Let's hear it for the stars!" cheered Connor Stoll out of the blue. Cheers erupted from the gathered crowd, including me. I whooped and hollered and clapped with everyone else, jumping up to kiss Percy on the cheek.

Thalia laughed and stuffed the cage back into Rose's backpack, a la Mary Poppins. "Let's head to an inn, guys," she instructed, stretching and leading the group down the Acropolis once more.

I stifled a yawn, but of course, Percy noticed. He yanked me from the ground and--nearly dropping me--shifted me onto his back, piggyback style.

"I'm not tired," I insisted, but it was so muffled and slurred I gave up pretty quickly.

He rolled his eyes. "Just don't fall off, Wise Girl."

"Seaweed Brain," I muttered, letting my eyes drift close. I didn't mind. For the first time in months, I felt nothing but absolute, serene, blissful peace.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up on my own to the cottony scent of freshly-washed sheets and the pinky glow of Dawn's rose-red fingers welcoming the morning again, though it couldn't have been earlier than six thirty. I stretched my arms and sighed contentedly, remembering what was on tab for today: nothing more than a plane ride home. Which may have been long, but I looked at it as an opportunity to rest our hearts for a while.

Peace, obviously, couldn't stay that way for very long. The raven-haired Silena Beauregard flung open a white door in the corner of my Mediterranean-looking room.

"I found it!" she squealed.

I shuffled out of bed, tugged a fleece from my duffel, and pulled it on over my old clothes from last night. "Found what?"

"Your wedding location," she said indulgently. "I found it. And you'll _flip_."

I whined a little, but she was my friend. And though I had no intention of going along with her wedding plans, I could at least humor her for a while with this stuff. Being Silena, she wouldn't tell me where we were going until we'd boarded the ferry, argued for three hours about how important big white weddings were, landed, and had to hike for another fifteen minutes before arriving at her destination.

I felt like I'd stepped into a movie.

"What...where are we?" I asked softly.

We had stepped into a sun-dipped fairytale, where plenty of ridiculous romantic things turned out to be true. For example: people lie about ocean water being "turquoise blue" all the time in paperback novels, right? Well, the water was _actually_ turquoise blue, not a muddy gray. Instead of mushy sand, the beach was formed from shining-white marble pebbles. We were encased in a large cove, ringed by magnificent rocky cliffs of mountains, covered in ferns and deep green trees. It was as if I'd had the best dream in the world and forgotten to wake up.

She beamed. "We're at Myrtos Beach. Kefalonia!"

"Kefalonia?" I blinked. The island's name struck a chord, and I knew roughly where we were, but nobody before had told me it was so...beautiful. I still couldn't get over the water--I'm deathly serious when I tell you it was bright, bright blue.

"Yes. The Jewel of the Ionian," she nodded briskly, then turned to me. "So, what do you think?!"

I wanted to stay level-headed. My plan was to tell her politely that, no thanks, we'll just go to an E-Z Wedding Chapel or something and get a certificate so we'll be officially married, especially in case one of us dies. But what came out of my idiot mouth was: "Are you _kidding_?! I love it!"

She screamed, then scrunched me in a hug. "Oh, I just knew, knew, knew you would!" she exclaimed. "Isn't it lovely? And it's in Greece. And it's where Hercules and Megara got married in the old days, before, you know, Hera struck him with madness and he killed her by accident. It's gorgeous!"

"You're right, Silena," I grinned, then my face fell. "Wait, just because I'm agreeing to this...this doesn't mean we have to get dressed up or anything, right?"

She didn't answer, just hummed Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" from _Lohengrin. _I narrowed my eyes stubbornly, looking toward the multicolored waves once more. Was it just me, I wondered, or was I maybe...looking forward to getting married?

The idea was confusing. In my head, the married part was okay. I couldn't see myself happy any other way except to be with Percy as much as I could. Whenever I was away, it felt weird, like I'd left home and forgotten to bring part of myself along. I'm making no sense, I know. But that's how I could see the married-as-in-spending-the-rest-of-our-short-lives-together part going well.

But when I'd said yes, I sort of avoided the rest of the part of marriage. Like...getting a house, or, eek, having kids, or having a wedding. Those were adult things, for adult people. And we were just sixteen. I'd sort of hoped we could slyly pick up a certificate of marriage and just stay together forever, no adult frivolities involved.

But the idea of having a wedding on this beautiful paradise in Greece, this marble-pebbled, turquoise-oceaned Myrtos Beach. It seemed dangerously appealing, and I didn't want it to be.

The confusion didn't go away, even after we spent two hours in the airport. Even after we boarded the plane set for home. Even during the hours-long flight, complete with jet lag.

Even when we--fifty half-bloods, twelve hunters, five Callistan stars, a satyr, a nymph--hitched a bus to Long Island, New York.

Home to Camp Half-Blood.


	15. The Last Leaf Falls

_**A/N: After A BILLION AND ONE chapters, it's done. Finally, right? Last chapter of a Golden Autumn. The idea at the end is the awesome idea of Hunter00, whose name is now AspiringAuthor00! Thanks so much!!!**_

_**On a more important note, ANNABETH HAS BEEN CAST! That's right, Alexandra Daddario. She's SO pretty! What I think's funny is that so many middle schoolers were thinking they were going to get the part because they had blond hair and gray eyes...and Alexandra is brunette and has blue eyes (hahaha me too). She's a really good actress, which is good cause Annabeth's not really a one-dimensional character.**_

_**Issue: she's 23. And Logan's 17. What a strange, strange world we live in.**_

_**Before I get started on a sequel, if y'all want a sequel, I think I'll post a chapter of my original fic. I don't know where to post it though. Whatever.**_

_**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**_

It looked awful.

The camp wasn't so much a camp as it was a huge pile of ruins and fog. It looked like someone--like Kronos--had personally sucked all the color out of the landscape, leaving not a lot more than a few smoky gray acres of dirt and tree stumps. My eyes stung, which was mostly thanks to the dust, but if I was like Silena they would have been stinging from an oncoming onslaught of crying. Silena, as it was, was delicately wiping away tears already.

The Hunters, including Thalia, were unfazed. Why not? It wasn't like this was _their_ home for almost ten years.

"This sucks," Travis Stoll piped up, breaking the silence.

Silena sniffled. "I can't even tell...where did the strawberry fields begin?"

I walked slowly to the right and knelt gently by a silvery pile of rubble. Brushing away a few gray pieces of wood and the cold wing of a stone owl, I pulled out a thin leather strip. Nine glazed ceramic beads and a once-shiny class ring were strung on the leather, their glassy coat marred by soot and dust.

Thalia nodded brusquely. "All right, then," she turned to Rose. "No use moping over how gross it is now. Bring out the energy, Rose!"

Ariel blinked as Rose pulled the cage of glowing stars from her pack. "Wait, we're using the stars? What for?"

Rose snorted, a little more rudely than necessary, but Thalia just smiled. "You'll see. Care to do the honors, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth flew to the cage's side, barely containing her excitement until she saw me kneeling over my cabin's ruins. "Oh, don't be so sad, Annabeth," she said sympathetically. "It'll all be better soon."

Right. It'll all be better soon. Oh, except, even if we still fix the camp and everything, Luke's _still_ trapped as Kronos without us being sure we can fix him. And we _still_ are outnumbered probably a hundred to one. And the gods _still _need to quit being petty and stupid and get over their differences.

While I was numbering my depressing thoughts, Elizabeth gently unlatched the cage door. With a shimmering _zing_ing noise, the five stars shot out in opposite directions, like they were happy to be free. But that wasn't what everyone was watching--instead, our eyes were locked on their trailing starbeams. They left these translucent, glittering trails behind them, and wherever they touched...

"It's reviving," Beckendorf said in awe. "Camp Half-Blood's coming back."

He was telling the truth. The stars were painting a trail of healthy green grass where there used to be ashy soot. All of the charred sticks had their blackened exteriors wiped away, and soon, dark green tendrils of strawberry plants curled around them again. When the stars swept across the cabins, it was even better. Bricks and hunks of stone floated from the ground, lifted by the Callistan energy, and their dust swept off until they shone better than before the attack. They reassembled and soon, all twelve cabins rose mightily from the ground in a perfect U.

Everything, from the stables to the forest to the Big House, glittered as good as new around us. And the stars had even added some extra stuff, like an orange grove by the arena and benches here and there. And a koi pond, which confused me just a little.

Susannah, my sister, whistled beside me. "Wow."

"No kidding!" the Stoll brothers shouted, snickering and racing each other to the brand new koi pond. Probably to poison all the fish.

Nobody except them went berserk, but everyone was almost glowing with happiness. After months without a home...it felt good to be back.

"Wish Chiron could be here," Percy said beside me.

I nodded. "I even miss Mr. D."

"I wouldn't go that far," he muttered, taking a seat on one of those new stone benches under two arching red, orange, and golden leafed maple trees. I joined him.

"A wedding," I said to myself, taking a peek at Percy. "What do you think?"

"Has Silena completely forbidden Las Vegas?"

"Completely."

"Well, I don't care," he shrugged. "Take your pick."

I smiled broadly. "It's on a beach."

"Awesome!" he laughed, pulling me onto his lap. The camp's magical borders were revived, so there weren't any more clouds. It was a cool, almost windy day, but the sun was warm against my face. I laid back on Percy's shoulders and closed my eyes.

"Don't move," I mumbled when he tried to stretch.

"Fine," he sighed close to my ear. After just laying there a few moments, he struck up a conversation again. "Remember when you had to teach me constellations?"

I yawned. "Cause you were uneducated and didn't know Orion from Ursa Major."

"I was looking at stars last night," he told me. "And started matching them to reasons I love you."

"Oh, so cute."

"I know. Like, that sparkly one is because she always gets me out of trouble, and the one to the left is how she looks when she's concentrating really hard in a book."

I snorted. "How long did _that_ last?"

"Well, I was doing just great until I ran out of stars."

I finally opened my eyes, looking at him with huge eyes like one of Thalia's deer. "Really?"

"Well...yeah."

I sat up in his lap and brushed the back of my hand against his face. "That's a lot of stars."

"Yep."

"You're crazy."

"Um, so are you!"

I shook my head, leaning forward to kiss him. I felt something tingle behind my neck--a golden maple leaf, torn from the trees above us by a gentle gust of wind. At first I thought it was just because it was a kind of windy day, but I stopped kissing for a moment and looked around us. A sunset-colored shower of leaves was swirling around us in a perfect spiral, glittering in the afternoon sun.

"Aphrodite," I forced through gritted teeth. "I swear..."

"No, no, it's fine," Percy pulled me back into another kiss. "You can try to kill her later."

Yeah, right. That kissing session lasted long enough that "later" wasn't a strong enough word. But hey, don't think I'd totally let my guard down. It wasn't like I'd _forgotten _about all our problems just cause I was 115% in love with Percy Jackson. I'd just...forgotten about all our problems.

Whoops.

Well, there was always tomorrow. And tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and the day after that, our forces at Camp Half Blood would just be getting stronger, with some help from me and my partner in crime.

And by "partner in crime", I mean the only guy I've ever loved this much in my life.

**THE END**


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